Snow and Ice
by MoonRaven95
Summary: It's pretty rare for children over ten years old to believe in Fairy Tales anymore. Laura and Axel Sommers and their friends do though. But when the Sommers move to another continent and their group gets separated they aren't so sure anymore can their believes hold on. But by getting new friends who share their views and finding one invisible winter spirit, everything is possible.
1. The start

**A/N: I watched the Rise of the Guardian before Christmas holiday and got an idea for this fic. I hope you'll like this.**

* * *

_Ratiriti ralla, tuli talvi halla, (Cristcrast crost, came the Winter and the Frost)_

_kuuraparta tuiskutukka, lumiviitta harmaasukka, (icy beard and windswept hair, snow cloak and grey sock)  
ratiriti ralla, semmoinen on halla. (Cristcrast crost, that's Frost.)_

_Ratiriti ralla, mistä tuli halla? __(Cristcrast crost, where came the Frost?)  
Tuolta Pohjan tunturilta, (Far from the hills of North)  
Lapin lasten laitumilta. (From the pastures of the Children of Lapland)  
Ratiriti ralla, sieltä tuli halla. (Cristcrast crost, that's where the Frost came.)_

_Ratiriti ralla, mitä teki halla? (Cristcrast crost, what did the Frost?)  
__Puhkui metsät puhtahiksi, (Blew the forests into wintry suit,)  
jäät ja järvet kantaviksi. __(ices and lakes strong to skate.)  
Ratiriti ralla, sitä teki halla. (Cristcrast crost, that's what the Frost did.)_

_Ratiriti ralla, hyvin teki halla: (Cristcrast crost, good job did the Frost:)  
Saapi lapset lasketella, (The kids get to ski,)  
luistella ja lauleskella. __(skate and sing.)  
Ratiriti ralla, kiitoksia halla. (Cristcrast crost, thank you mr. Frost.)_

* * *

I had always loved the winter. So had my brother. Who wouldn't love the beautiful and soft snow, skating on ice(no matter is it a lake or only a school ground), snow ball fights with friends after the lessons or just walking in the beautiful scenery on the evening when the sun had already gone down? Well, I could actually name several people who hated winter and snow. According them it was too cold. For goodness sake! Of course it's cold if you wear only a pair of tights, a thin hoodie and not even a proper hat if a hat at all! Besides, we were in Finland! The land of thousands of lakes and rivers and on winter the land of snow and ice! The homeland of Santa Claus! The land of… well, you got the point. This was the land which was never forgotten by Jack Frost. We _always_ had snow, sometimes a bit early, sometimes a bit late, but mostly in time. I had never got to see him though. While we were never forgotten, it seemed Finland was so small country he didn't bother to stay for a long time here. There were other, bigger, countries to snow… like Canada, USA and Russia. But I hadn't lost my hope yet. I hadn't lost it in those ten years I had known about him. I always wished to see him, here in Finland. But those chances got crushed two years ago when my parents decided to move to the States. To Burgess, Philadelphia, if I have to be exact. I still remember the day I heard of it. I also remember everything that happened before that… announcement. I was fifteen and it was during the winter holiday in February, about a week before my brother's twelfth birthday. We were ice skating with two of my friends…

* * *

"Laura!" A blond haired girl turned around and smiled widely to two other girls. One very tall and not very confident on the skates, one shorter and standing her back straight and chin up: she knew what she was doing and where her place was. She was the one to kick bullies' asses. Laura continued smiling as she skated closer to those two.

"Hi, Kia. Hi, Mari. I'm so glad you got to come. And Kia, if you had called me a bit earlier, I would've fallen on the ice. You do know it's not nice." Laura told the shorter girl who rolled her eyes.

"Like you'd fall, bloody ice princess." Kia smirked. Laura glared the girl. She knew the blonde didn't like being called an 'ice princess'. It made her sound a heartless snob which she definitely wasn't! But from her friend's mouth it was a compliment for her skating skills.

"Anyone wanna race?" Laura grinned impishly. Kia grinned back.

"Your lost is already clear." They all knew it. The shorter girl was faster runner and skater, could jump high and far, was excellent in all possible sports while Laura had always been mediocre if even that much.

"I'll stay here and wait. I can count for you though." Mari said even though it wasn't necessary. While Kia and Laura went five or six rounds around the field in a slightly faster than a normal speed, Mari barely managed one on her own. Well, not everyone could be an 'ice princess'.

"Alright! Ready…" The two girls settled behind an invisible line on the ice. One of a medium height with shoulder length honey brown hair, one shorter with short-cutted greyish brown hair and glasses.

"Set…" The girls crouched slightly.

"Go!" And they got off, leaving the tall girl with long chocolate brown hair on two braids behind. Mari chuckled slightly as she watched her two friends race around the school ground: the three of them never changed.

They were this time surprisingly equally matched, even when Laura's brother joined on the race on the halfway of the second round.

"How many rounds left?" Axel shouted as they passed Mari.

"Two and… half! Then the five rounds a done." Laura shouted back. It was always five rounds when they raced, unless it was decided otherwise beforehand.

* * *

"Who won?" The three asked in unison as they stopped right in front of Mari with three loud 'screetch' sounds.

"Let's say it was a tie since it's the last day of the holiday."

"'kay."

"Right."

"Fine to me."

The girls went to the middle of the ice field to skate just for fun and Axel started to mash some frozen snow blocks with his ice hockey stick since no one of his friends had come.

"Do you guys still believe in Fairy Tales and such?" Laura asked suddenly.

"I don't know. Why you ask?" Mari frowned.

"Just… Nothing. I guess I'm going through the time when I should decide whether to believe or not. I know my parents told me when I started school that things like Tooth Fairy, Easter Rooster and Santa Claus don't exist so I wouldn't be bullied by other kids because I believe but…" Laura shrugged and skated a bit away from her friends.

"You want to believe right?" Kia smiled. "I know what you mean. I have also younger siblings so I have kept silent about those things my parents said to me because the kids have still believed. So I kind of have believed too."

"Yes, that's exactly it!" Laura spun around and smiled widely. "Even though Axel has also been told that they don't exist I still can't let go of them. I kind of _want_ to believe in them."

"Grey Zone." Mari made the two look at her. "I'm on the Grey Zone. I might not believe in them anymore but I won't blame anyone who does believe."

"The Grey Zone sounds good to me too. Miles and Isla don't believe anymore but Neo does and I want him to believe as long as possible." Kia smiled. "Every day there is kids who lose their faith in those… creatures. It might be their parents, their friends or just they themselves. But every day there is also kids who start believing after their first Christmas, first Easter or after losing their first tooth and getting something nice from the Tooth Fairy."

"But isn't the Grey Zone dangerous? It's easy to slip into disbelief from there." Laura thought aloud.

"Maybe but from the Grey Zone is also easier to go to the Light. It's your own choice." Kia reassured the other girl.

"How about Jack Frost?"

"What about him?" Mari questioned.

"Does he exist?"

"Ha ha ha! If there is one Jack Frost, that's your brother! Jack Frost and Ice Princess, what a pair!" Kia laughed but got cut off by a snowball that hit her on the back of her head.

"You called?" Axel smirked mischievously.

"AXEL JACK SOMMERS! YOU ARE DEAD!" Laura and Mari laughed at Kia's exclamation and the said boy took off to scoop some more snow from the benches which surrounded the ice field. Kia skated after him.

"C'mon… It seems little Jacky needs some help." Laura used the nick-name she and her friends had given to the boy who was all about snow and winter. He was born on the last day of the last official winter month (the 28th of February) and seemed to carry the spirit of Winter always with him. He was the one to call his friends and ask for a match of ice hockey, he was always helping their father with snow that covered the yard and the pavements, he absolutely loved winter, just like his sister did. One probably would have thought Laura had also been born on winter but she wasn't. She was a child of Summer, born on the last official summer month, just before the schools started after holiday (the 11th of August). She actually loved all the seasons but winter had always held the special place in her heart.

They found Axel and Kia in the middle of a fierce snow ball fight. Laura laughed, scooped some snow, made a ball, aimed…

_Splat!_

Right on the target.

"People! Laura Snow is here!" The girl yelled her arms stretched towards the wintry grey sky.

"LAURA IRIS SOMMERS! YOU ARE DEAD!"

"Didn't she just shout that?" Laura asked Mari who chuckled at her friend's antics. Actually to her both best friends. Lumi-Laura or Laura Snow was another nick-name they had given during the past years. And actually Axel official nick-name Jää-Axel, or Axel Ice, but Laura always found more fun to call the boy 'Jacky' because he heated it for its girlishness. Except if it was the time for a proper snow fight. Then the two teamed up.

"Alright, Axel Ice and Laura Snow! Ready to kick Jack Frost's frozen ass!" She shouted their almost-official battle cry. Axel made more snow balls and the Sommers siblings started to pelt Kia and Mari with them.

"Gaah!"

"Alright, we surrender!" Kia cried after a few minutes of vain attempts to give a snow wash to the other two. Laura high-fived with Axel and gave the short girl a grin which told: "Never mess with us." With flushed cheeks the four teens/pre-teens went to change their ice-skates to the winter boots.

* * *

On their way home Laura made an announcement: "I'm not on the Grey Zone anymore. I definitely believe, no matter how old I am, no matter what the others say. And part of the winter is still ahead. I might get a chance to see Jack Frost. The real Jack Frost." She added as Axel opened his mouth.

"I think I'm also slipping to the Light Zone…" Mari mused.

"Let's make a promise then." Kia told them with her 'I-have-an-idea' voice. "Let's promise to protect the children who still believe and their belief here in Finland. We are the Protectors."

"Yes!"

"I'm in!"

"Sounds good to me." The four kids stretched forward their right hands, which didn't hold the skates, and took a hold on each other's wrist.

" One, two, three! Protectors! Whee!" Their hands shot towards the sky where the Moon watched them gently.

* * *

"Excuse me what?!" Laura stood up and slammed her hands against the kitchen table. She stared at her parents who stood on the other side of the table. Axel copied her shocked expression and lowered the spoon which had been a halfway to his mouth. Their mother, Lena, opened her throat and told again the thing their father had said five seconds ago.

"We are moving to America. You father got a job offer from there and we are going too."

While Laura gaped them and looked like a gold fish, Axel asked the important questions.

"For how long time?"

"I don't know sweetie, but long enough we have to sell this apartment."

"But you are not touching on our summer house, are you?" Laura growled.

"Of course not. It's not only ours and I'd dread to think what would happen to it while we are away."

"When are we moving?" Axel asked calmly.

"Next summer."

"Next-! Not before my birthday! Mum, please, say we won't move before my next birthday!" Laura begged, horrified. She had planned to celebrate her sixteenth birthday with her friends right after the first day in school after the summer holiday. But her mother crushed that hope too.

"We are moving on July. This is actually a good opportunity for you both to improve your English skills. And didn't you say, Laura, that none of your friends are coming to the high-school you planned on going."

"But that doesn't mean they're going to abandon me, or that I should abandon them. I can still keep in touch with them and meet them."

"Darling, now you don't understand. This is not a matter of negotiating. It's already decided and you are not going to meet you friends easily after we are there. Besides you can make new friends there."

"I doubt that." Laura's voice was dripping of venom.

"We will also get you both lap tops so you can keep in touch with your… er, _old friends._"

"So you think you can bribe us like that? And old friends? They are my friends right now!"

"Don't talk to me like that!"

"Yes I do if you are going to take everything away from me! You are the worst parents ever! I hate you!" The girl stomped to her room and slammed the door shut.

"HELVETTI!(Hell!)" Laura screamed. "HELVETIN HELVETIN HELVETTI!(Hell Hell Hell!)" She slammed her fist against the wall. It didn't help her anger at all, only made her hand hurt. She picked her mobile phone and called to Kia.

"_Kia."_ Came the short opening response from the other end of the line.

"Kia… The Protectors are in their end even before the start…" Laura sobbed.

"_How come? Neo, get away, I'm trying to speak."_

"_Tell me a story about the Santa Claus."_ The five-year-old Neo's voice was heard nearby.

"_Later, you brat. Now I'm talking with my friend. Hello? Laura, are you still there? What do you mean?"_

"We are moving to America in next July." Laura choked out and started to cry aloud, her phone dropping on the floor. Now, when she had said it aloud herself, the truth hit her with all its weight and she couldn't take it anymore.

"_Hello? Laura? Are you alright? Laura?"_

* * *

The next months went in a blur. Laura probably wouldn't have remembered anything afterwards if Axel hadn't recorded everything with his brand new video camera he had gotten on the previous Christmas. While Laura preferred drawing and writing, Axel liked to the photos and videos. And then it was already the start of the summer holiday, Laura, with barely passed exams and totally empty mind, and Axel, with recordings since the fateful February, received a gift from Kia and Mari. It was actually two gifts, one for Laura and one for Axel. They were two key shaped necklaces. They both were the same size and shape but there were also some differences. Laura's was the same color than whitegold and had a painted snowflake with frosty surroundings on the place where one was supposed to take a hold to open some door. Axel's was silvery and had some glass pieces instead of a snowflake, forming a flower which looked like it was made of ice.

"They are so pretty!" Laura breathed in fascination. Kia grinned showed her own necklace. It was also a key shaped but much simpler: only four thin swords crossing each other.

"You don't know what a job was to find these. But when we did, we got them at a reduced price 'cause we bought four of these." She told the blonde as she played with the golden chain of the necklace.

"Four? Does Mari have the last one?" Axel asked and lifted his gaze from observing the details of the glass flower. After a while of watching it he had decided it was not too girly but he still wouldn't keep it visible in public.

"Yup! Hers has kind of a rainbow in a black surrounding… I think it suits her since she's planning to go to The Art High School and since she's absolutely genius in painting and drawing."

"I know, Kia, I have seen her art work and I sincerely hope she'll get in." Laura laughed but stopped when the shorter girl hugged her. They both almost slipped off from Laura's bed. "Whoa, calm down… What's up?"

"I'm going to miss you. I have thought all these months that this is just a bad dream and I'll wake up at any moment but now when I came today here and see all these cardboard boxes…"

"I know… I'm going to miss you too. My whole life is packed inside these boxes…" Laura looked sadly at the boxes that had taken a whole wall of her room. Her bookshelf was already emptied and the desk was in pieces near a window, on the same place it had once stood proudly and waited for her to start doing homework, draw or write stories. "I'm going to miss you too. It almost feels like I'm already away."

* * *

Five weeks later; the 14th of July; Burgess, Philadelphia 

Laura looked at their new house. It stood in the middle of a few other houses, identical to that one. That house was the second last one of that street and with a good luck there wouldn't live any kids.

"Fat chance… This is a typical suburban area in a town in the middle of nowhere…" The girl mumbled, took the nearest box from the truck in front of that house and stomped inside. "My room is in upstairs!" She shouted and went the stairs up. Laura knew her parents would sleep downstairs: that much she had bothered to find out after gotten to know about the moving.

Laura chose her room from two others. Hers was the only one with a view to the street and a proper window. The walls were white and the floor was some light colored wood. Thank god they _didn't_ have wall-to-wall carpets everywhere and _had _double glazing on their windows. She watched the window thoughtfully. Maybe she could to ask if she can paint the window frames and the window bench dark brown at least from the inside. It would make a nice change to the lightness of the room. Besides, _they_ had pissed the girl off pretty badly so they'd better try everything to get her on a better mood.

The men, who had driven the truck with their belongings to the house, carried her bed upstairs and then her desk in pieces and the baby blue bookshelf that had come in one piece. Laura nodded curtly her thanks to them and started then to unpack the boxes she had carried by herself. In the room next to hers, Axel was unpacking his belongings.

During the midday Laura finally took a break. She walked outside and sat on the stairs with a sigh. Carrying and unpacking were good ways to went out her frustration but it didn't help at all for her irritation.

"Hey! You are new, right? What's your name?" Someone asked in American English. Slowly, Laura turned her head towards the source of the voice. It was a small boy who had climbed to sit on the fence which separated the second last and the last houses' yard from each other. He had brown hair and blue eyes and wore blue shorts and a green t-shirt. He was smiling.

"Yeah, I'm Laura Sommers." The girl answered her slightly accented English.

"I'm Jamie Bennet. Nice to meet you!" The boy hopped off the fence and walked to her. He stuck out his hand which Laura slowly took without bothering to stand up. The boy didn't care. Instead, he continued asking questions. "Where do you come from?"

"From Finland."

"Finland? Where is it?"

"Take an Atlas and check. I'm sure you have one at home."

"Yes, we have. So you are abroad, huh? You talk English pretty well."

Laura knitted her brows together. She had said only a few short sentences and the boy told her she was good. But well… the boy himself was less than ten years old.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"A brother, Axel. He's twelve."

"Really? That's cool!"

"He doesn't speak English very well."

"So? He'll learn to be better. I have a little sister, Sophie. She's only a baby right now. I'm eight by the way, almost nine. How old are you?"

"Almost sixteen. About a month left."

"That's cool!"

"Hey, kiddo. I'm pretty tired right now. So what if you sod off now and go the check where Finland is. I _might_ be on a better mood tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: Right, this was the first chapter/prologue. The next one will come in couple of day I suppose...**


	2. Jack Frost

_Kolme yötä jouluun on, (Only three days left to Christmas,)_

_laskin aivan itse eilen, (I counted all by myself yesterday,)  
kun näin silmät tonttusen. (when I saw the eyes of a little elf.)_

_Kynttilätkin loistaa taas, (The candles are shining again,)  
ikkunoista katsellaan, (people are watching from their windows,)  
kun lunta hiljaa putoaa. (as the snow slowly falls down.)_

_Iltasella rakensin mä pienen seimen huoneessain, (On the evening I built a little manger in my room)  
kun löysin vanhan pahvilaatikon. (when I found an old cardboard box.)_

_Pöydän ääreen nukahdin ja huoneeseen mut kannettiin, (I was carried to my room after falling asleep at the table)  
ja unta näin: "Nyt joulu tullut on!" (and I saw a dream: "The Christmas is now here!")_

_Kolme yötä jouluun on, (Only three days left to Christmas,)  
laskin aivan itse eilen, (I counted all by myself yesterday,)  
kun näin silmät tonttusen. (when I saw the eyes of a little elf.)_

_Leivotaan ja siivotaan, (Baking a lot and cleaning up,)  
kuusikin jo sulaa saa, (the Christmas tree is also melting,)  
kun kolme yötä enää on. __(when only three days are left to Christmas.)_

* * *

Who would have thought that simple Christmas Carol would cause so many questions? I was only humming it when one of the girls of my class asked me what the song was about. When I told the song's name in English they started to question me why I was singing it now, on the 21st of December. And there I tried to explain to them that back in Finland we celebrated Christmas on the 24th, not the 25th of December. The conclusion they got? Finns are weird. I hated it here. Anything I did was every time more or less questioned (Except by Jamie who wanted me to tell about my life back in Finland. He found it fascinating.). Like when I complained the lack of holiday in October. Or like I told the Finns didn't celebrate Thanksgiving or had their Independence Day on the 6th of December. The last straw had been when they had asked about the Lucia Day which is on the 13th of Dec… The lack of Snow days, the days off from school because of snow, raised also questions… Which reminds me…

* * *

Laura looked out of her window and sighed. No snow yet. It was already the first day of November. Accompanied by another sigh she got ready for school. The days were already freezing but without any snow.

As she locked the front door, she heard Jamie calling her with his friends. The girl smiled and walked to them. "Hi, everyone." She greeted them. "How are you today?"

"Just fine!" Jamie smiled back to Laura. "And you?"

"Pretty much okay I guess. Just a bit ticked off…" The blond mumbled.

"Your parents?" The twins(Claude and Caleb) guessed and received a nod.

"How come?" Pippa frowned. "You are pretty often more or less annoyed by them."

"They took my computer away so I couldn't contact my friends in Finland. They want me to go out and _socialize_…" Laura spat the last word like it had been venom.

"Socialize?" Pippa tilted her head in confusion. Laura was about to clarify but a blond boy with glasses, whose name Laura always forgot, cut her off.

"Socialize, in other words talk to other people and make contacts. I guess in this case it means making friends." He said and the older girl nodded as a confirmation. The other kids also nodded but for a different reason.

"Yeah, they want me to find friends among my peers, not only kids who are five years younger than I. Personally I have nothing against you guys but they – especially my mother – disagree." Laura just got to say that when her cell phone beeped and informed about a new message.

"Who is it from?" Jamie asked curiously.

"From my friend Kia. She sent me a photo… Oh man… They have gotten a lot of snow today." I showed the photo to the kids who sighed dreamily. The photo was about a dark blue velvety sky, a beautiful snow fall and big snowdrifts on the ground already.

"So unfair… They've had a Snow Day!" Caleb sighed.

"Snow fights and ice skating and skiing…" Claude continued.

"And no school…" Jamie mumbled as they walked towards the elementary school the kids went. Laura shook her head amusedly.

"Guys, if it helps at all, we don't have school off during Snow days."

"You don't?!" Came from five mouths.

"Nope."

"Oh…"

"But I still want snow here… And now!" The sixteen-year-old girl pocketed her phone, stretched her arms towards the sky and shouted from the bottom of her lungs: "GODDAMMIT, JACK FROST! WE WANT SNOW!"

* * *

"Who's Jack Frost?" Jamie asked Laura as they sat on the floor of her room and drew pictures with a lot of snow.

"Huh?"

"Jack Frost. You said his name earlier today and now it's snowing." The boy motioned towards the window. Laura looked up and smiled to the sight outside. It had indeed started to snow in the middle of the school day.

"He's the spirit of Winter. Haven't you ever heard of him?"

"Nuh-uh. What does he do?"

"I'm not sure. He is _said_ to make snow, freeze the lakes, bring cold air around the world and something like that. I have never seen him though."

"Okay…"

"Don't you believe me? Did you also have that kind of attitude when you heard about Santa Claus and Easter Roost-… Bunny for the first time?" Laura teased the boy.

"No… but that sounds pretty unbelievable for one person to do." Jamie shrugged and made the girl sigh and lay back on the floor. She watched the ceiling of her room which she had painted to resemble a night sky. Even the constellations were properly made, not only tips of white paint in a random order. Watching that 'sky' made her always relax and sink into her own thoughts. And now she was pondering why Jamie was so skeptical about Jack Frost. Maybe it was because he just heard about the spirit or because his parents hadn't told him earlier. It was easier to start believing on younger age when you stood firmly on the Light Zone… Was Jamie already in that critical age which could lead into disbelief? Hopefully not…

"Jamie? Do you believe in Santa Claus?"

"Silly question. Of course I do! Who else would deliver all the gifts?" Laura smiled at the boy's enthusiastic reply. "Do _you _believe?"

"Yes… Yes, I do."

* * *

The next day was Saturday. Laura had asked on the previous day Jamie if he knew any other places for ice skating than the school ground. She didn't really care of meeting up with Jaslene, Marilyn and Camilla, the worst bullies of the whole Burgess if you didn't count the boys who didn't even study properly and spent their time outside of the local shopping center, smoking. Unfortunately Laura happened to be their favorite – and only – target at the moment. Fortunately Jamie knew one place.

"There is a pond in the forest. Not very small but not very deep inside the forest either. No one goes there though. Parents don't want to risk their children falling through thin ice. But now it has been pretty cold for a long time so maybe the ice is strong enough." The boy had explained. Now Laura was tying her shoe laces as Axel waited her outside. He had promised to come with her to check the ice's strength and help her in the case it'd give up. He had his video camera though while Laura carried her ice skates on her shoulder.

* * *

Jack Frost sat on a branch of a tree near the pond, or the lake, he had woken up in about 300 years ago. Why he was there, why he had woken up, he didn't know. He knew only the name Man in the Moon had given to him and what he could do but that's it. Over those 300 years he had existed no one had ever seen him and that was because no one believed in him. Or that's what he thought…

"Goddammit this amount of snow!" He heard someone suddenly curse. Then another voice joined in, chuckling.

"Laura, you were the one who wished for snow. You should be grateful."

"Yes, yes, I'm grateful. But we are now in the middle of a forest where is enough snow to reach my knees." Jack looked at the newcomers curiously. He had never before seen them. Maybe they had moved during the time he was on the southern half of the Globe. What made him more curious was the girl's voice he had heard on the previous day. The voice that had asked for snow directly from him. At first the winter spirit had though he had just imagined the voice. If no one had believed in him in the past 300 years why would they start now so suddenly? But that girl…

"Shouldn't you test the ice first without your skates? In the case it breaks, you can run back here." The boy who had come with the girl, Laura, suggested. The girl gave him a look and crouched down to untie the shoelaces of her boots.

"If the ice starts breaking then I skate back. Skating is after all much faster way to move than running. Especially when one's standing on ice."

"Okay, whatever you say." The boy sighed.

"Besides, Axel, if the ice cracks I won't fall through it. I trust Jack Frost to keep me safe." Laura smiled to herself while Jack almost fell off the tree. Did she… Did she really say that? Did she believe?

"Hey!" Jack shouted to them. No reaction. Maybe he was too far and the wind caught his voice so they didn't hear. The spirit jumped down of the tree as Laura stood up and stepped on the ice and kicked a few times. She slid on the other side of the pond and smiled brightly.

"See. It didn't break. It's so beautiful here by the way… And the ice is surprisingly clean and smooth." She told to Axel who was now filming the surroundings.

"It really is. Luckily Jamie told us about this place."

"Yup."

Jack looked at the two in confusion. Had the girl just joked? Did she believe at all? At least she didn't see him judging by the way her eyes swept past him multiple times. Axel provided him the answer.

"Do you really think it was Jack Frost who listened to your wish and made all this snow?"

"Of course I do! Who else would it have been?" Laura said innocently. "I might not have seen him at any time but I do believe in him." She skated past Jack and sat on the snow next to the other boy. "Besides don't you remember how many times I have tried to see him? Do you really think I'd give up just like that?"

"I didn't mean it like that. I also believe in him. At least I try to. But it's hard… Everyday it's harder and harder than before."

"Well, I'm not giving up." Laura stood up and dusted the snow from her jacket and trousers on Axel.

"Hey! Watch out!" The boy shielded his video camera and looked angry for a second until he saw the solemn face of his sister. "What now Laura?"

"What if I'm too old to believe and that's why I can't see him?" Laura asked. Jack strode to the two kids and huffed.

"No, if it's up to me." He stuck his staff into a snow drift and threw some snow on their faces. Then he directed the G-shaped end of the staff against the ice and started to form frosty flowers around the ice covered pond.

"Pretty!" Laura exclaimed and clapped her hands like a little child. "He's here, isn't he?" She looked frantically around, her eyes passing Jack more than once. The spirit sighed but smiled then sadly. At least they did believe.

* * *

On the following days Laura and Axel came every single day to the pond, and Jack was always waiting for them. He started to write to them by forming words with snow on the ice. They answered eagerly on his questions and he enjoyed the time he spent with them, especially with Laura who sometimes came alone. He also found out where the two lived and frost their windows just to tell them he had been there.

"Gee… I hate school!" Laura huffed and collapsed on her bed. Axel sat next to her and smiled sympathetically. "Especially those three piss me off." She continued grumbling.

_Splat!_

"Jamie Bennet!" The girl bolted up and opened the window that had been hit by a snowball. Indeed, the nine-year-old boy stood there, another snowball in his hand and a wide smile plastered on his face.

"Hi, Laura!"

"You are so dead!" The girl made a snowball from the snow on the windowsill and threw it. It knocked the boy's hat off. Both Laura and Axel laughed at Jamie's stunned expression. He hadn't thought the girl would actually throw a ball back and hit. And in no time the both Sommers were outside and in a middle of a snow war.

Suddenly a snow ball hit Laura behind her head. She lost her balance and fell face forward on the snow.

"Ouch, whoever threw that is dead…" She mumbled and turned around to see who it had been but saw no one there. For a second she was confused but laughed then: of course it was Jack! She made another snowball and threw it to the general direction of where the other one had come even though she had no hope to hit the Spirit of Winter.

"Not bad, girl…" Jack smirked as he dodged the snowball. He had just come back to the town after a trip to Sweden and Russia. He had also stopped by Finland after learning that Laura and Axel had come from there. He jumped on the fence and watched the kids have the snow fight, occasionally adding some fuel with the snowballs he himself threw. They all had fun. That was something Jack was good at: having fun and also making other kids happy.

"Laura! Axel! Come inside now! You have to do your homework and help me with the chores." Lena Sommers called from the stairs.

"Kill joy…" The girl muttered and threw the last ball on Claude. She followed Axel inside.

"Let's have another one tomorrow, okay?" Jamie asked hopefully.

"Okay…" Laura smiled weakly to them before closing the door behind. She knew what was coming now… A lecture about acting like someone of her age, carrying her responsibilities and making friends with older girls, not just with neighborhood's kids. But she didn't bother to get annoyed by it anymore since she got it about once a week nowadays.

"Mother, how many times I have to say that I'm not going to make friends with someone who mock everything I do, where I come from and what I look like? I haven't befriended with them by now so what makes you think I'm going to do it just because you say it?" She sighed tiredly.

"If you just give them a chance… I talked yesterday with the Westons. Their daughter is going to arrange a pajama party tomorrow-."

"In which I'm not going. I heard about it two days ago and Jaslene made _very_ clear that I'm not welcome."

"You must have misunderstood her at some point. Rosaria Weston told me Jaslene had invited all the girls of your class and that includes you too. Rosaria said you are very much _welcome._"

"Whatever… I'm not going."

"Laura Iris Sommers, you are going to Weston's tomorrow. This is a great opportunity for you to make friends."

"Are you kidding me? Jaslene hates me! If she really is going to let me in that party she has planned something extremely humiliating for me to do. And being trapped in the same room with twelve girls who all are in her camp. No way! You are not going to force me to go there."

"You are not giving me any options to do otherwise! If you are not going to go by yourself, I will drive you there and not leave until you have rung the doorbell and are inside."

"You are a fool. The biggest fool of the whole universe. How do you think I ripped the green jumper granny gave me last Christmas? She took scissors and tried to cut it off me. Or the time when I had chewing gum on my hair? She made Camilla blew bubbles right next to me and let them explode while she and Marilyn held me on my place."

"You are exaggerating now. They are charming girls and-."

"You talked to them and they lied to you? Of yes, now I see this. They have told you that we are friends and you swallowed it gullibly."

_Slap!_

Laura didn't even flinch as her mother spanked her cheek, only let her head snap on the side before turning back and glaring the woman angrily.

"You are grounded. You are grounded until Christmas. No hope to get your computer back or leave the house for anything else than school." Lena Sommers breathed heavily, like trying to control her temper and prevent herself from hitting the girl again.

"Fine. I see very well your plan now. You isolated me from my friends in Finland and now you try to keep me away from the few ones I have made here so I'd become a brainless follower in Jaslene's clique. But that is not going to work." Laura walked the stairs up to her room. She waited until she had closed the door before she started to scream her frustration out.

* * *

"You know you are not allowed to leave the house." Axel stated as they strode towards 'Jack's Pond', like they dubbed it. It had been now five days after grounding and Laura had this far obeyed silently almost everything her mother had told her to do, except going to that pajama party the argument had originally raised.

"I know but I won't let that… hag get me." The girl snapped back and caused the boy raise his hands in defensive way.

"Pretty strong wind here… You better be careful that it won't blow you away. You are so skinny it would be possible." Axel continued, attempting to joke. Laura only shrugged before starting to change her boots to skates. "By the way… why did you want to come _here_ of all places?"

"Because I wanted to meet Jack." The girl slid in the middle of the pond. "It seems he isn't here yet, otherwise the ice flowers would be also.

In silence Laura skated around the pond while Axel filmed it. The snow was only falling down from the sky and the full moon providing light in the cold night.

"Do you have a crush on him?"

"On who?"

"Jack Frost."

_Thump._

Laura landed on her butt when the words of her brother caught her off guard. Unbeknownst to her Jack had been nearby too, sitting on a tree and just watching her. And he had also almost fallen off from the branch.

"Wha-what makes you think so?" The girl spluttered. Axel just shrugged and gave then her a look which told very plainly she'd better tell the answer to the first question. Laura pressed her chin against her chest and mumbled then a silent 'yes'.

"I see."

"He sees what?" Jack narrowed his eyes to the boy with the camera. Laura copied his question.

"You see what?"

"It fits now. I have seen your drawings where you have tried to find out what he looks like. You also seemed extremely happy when you found out he had joined on our snowball fight, not to mention how much you have looked forward every time we have come here." Axel smiled. "And you know what?"

"What?" Jack and Laura asked simultaneously even though the girl didn't know it.

"Jack also heard your confession."

Laura, who had got on her feet by now, fell again. Jack facepalmed. He didn't want the girl know he had heard that.

"Oh my… Kia's words came true. Jack Frost and Ice Princess, what a pair." Axel laughed as Laura blushed in a deep red.

* * *

Laura lied awake on her bed. In front of her was her newest drawing about Jack. This time she had given him a blue hoodie instead of a grey jumper. The hair and eyes were still the same, had been a few days already. Silvery white and ice blue.

_Ritzzz…_

Laura sat up. She knew that voice. It came every time Jack froze her window. She walked to the window and opened it. She couldn't help but blushing.

"Hi…"

"_Hi, how are you?"_ The invisible spirit wrote to the notepad she always left by the window.

"Fine thanks…"

"_Did you draw me again?"_ Laura could swear he was just messing up with her and just gave a glare to him. _"Did you?"_

"I did."

"_Can I see it? I'd like to know how close you guessed this time."_

"This time? I haven't shown you any of… Axel! He had taken them and shown you."

"_Bingo! But show it to me know, please."_

"Fine." Fuming, Laura went to her bed and grabbed the drawing. "Here." She gave it to Jack who she knew to be smiling happily at it even though she couldn't see him. "Well?"

"_It's great. This time you finally got my clothes right. It really looks like me."_

"That's good to hear…" Laura turned her head away so he couldn't see her blush even more. Jack chuckled and wrote then:

"_Come to the roof."_

"What?"

"_Just come now."_

"Uh… 'kay. Just wait a sec." Laura pulled over her favorite (and slightly over-sized) jumper so she wouldn't freeze out there. "Will you take Axel too?" She asked to the direction where the notepad hovered.

"_I don't know if I can actually touch any of you. Many people have run through me during the years I have existed… I better not to risk your lives."_

"So I'm on my own… I see. No worries though. I have been called a monkey several times when I was younger. But will I fetch him?"

"_Sure, why not."_

Laura went to her brother's room and silently they came back.

"_Climb outside of the window so wind can lift you up."_

"Is that even safe?" Axel frowned and fingered his video camera he had taken with him once again. Laura elbowed him with a 'shush'. She climbed out first and with a 'whish' she found herself up on the roof. In another 'whish' Axel landed next to her.

"I told you the wind could easily lift you off the ground." He smirked and started to film the nocturnal scenery they saw.

"Yes, but it didn't blow me _away_ like you implied it would do. Besides it also blew you up here."

"True… Look at that!" The boy suddenly pointed up in the sky. Laura looked up and saw a plethora of golden yellow streams of…

"Is that dream sand? _The_ dream sand?" She reached out for the stream which came straight towards them. As she touched it, some flowers and stars bursted out from it. She couldn't help but laugh. Axel laughed too, until the same stream of sand went through his camera.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. If this broke I'll send the bill to Sandman…" He mumbled but relaxed when he saw it working perfectly. But then his jaw dropped. He looked the screen and then the spot he was filming. And the screen again.

"What now?" Laura asked worriedly.

"I… I can see Jack… I can see him through this camera." The boy managed to say. Jack, who had been standing on the chimney almost fell but jumped then to stand on the roof like the Sommers kids. Laura hurried to see what was seen on the screen. After seeing it she had to sit down on the snowy roof.

"Just like in my drawing. I can believe this." She started to mumble. "I finally got to see what he really looks like."

"Laura? Hello? Earth to Laura, I'm listening." Axel waved his hand in front of the girl's face. "Laura, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just so happy." She smiled first to her brother and then to Jack who stood still on the same place, slightly stunned about the recent turn of events.

"Sandman is one miracle maker…" He chuckled then. "Although that was accidental."

* * *

The Christmas came surprisingly fast and Laura's grounding ended. She was ecstatic about it. Now she could spent her time properly with Jamie and his friends, but also with Jack. And there she was again: skating at Jack's Pond while Axel filmed. The boy had become obsessed by his camera, especially after finding out they could see Jack by using it. He had also taken a habit of calling Jack Laura's boyfriend, which neither one of them liked.

Laura hadn't noticed Jack arriving yet. Normally she could sense his presence by feeling the air getting colder near him. But now she was probably too distracted because of the Christmas. Jack slid closer and stopped right behind her. She still didn't notice him so he – by some human habit he had picked up – tapped carefully her shoulder. Laura jumped, almost literally and had fell again on her but if the spirit hadn't caught her around her waist.

"J-Jack?" Laura asked. She could feel the cold arms around her but couldn't see anything. "I thought you couldn't touch us…"

Slowly, Jack lifted her back on her feet and let go of her. She turned around and looked at him. Or rather the spot where she knew his face was. During the weeks she had learnt to find him and almost every time she could also talk towards his face. Jack studied her closely. Laura looked the same than every other night they had met. Honey brown smooth hair down her shoulders, eyes by the same color than her brother's: greyish blue, like the frozen pond they were standing on now. Her skin was rather pale by the coldness and her cheeks were flushed for the same reason. She was also pretty skinny but not too thin. Carefully the girl reached out her hand towards the boy who held his breath until her gloved fingers touched the fabric of his hoodie.

"You are really here." She whispered. Jack touched her hand, still stunned that someone actually could touch him. "I'm so happy." Laura hugged the boy tightly and he wrapped his of arms around her again and squeezed her like saying: "Me too."

* * *

**A/N: Aww... Laura and Jack... They'll be so cute couple. but now I have a couple of things to say befpre letting you review.**

**1. Easter Rooster: Here in Finland we have Easter Rooster to deliver the chocolate eggs. Or at least in our family we have always talked about the Rooster and some little bunnies who help him. I suppose the origin of Easter Rooster is from the Rooster of ABC books. The one who gives candy to kids who has learnt to read and done their homework properly...**

**2. Lena Sommers: I know I made her turn out a horrible mother but I hope she'll calm down with the time. Thank God my mum isn't like that...**

**3. Axel and Laura +Jack: Yeah, they can't see Jack. They can't even see the Guardians yet even though the do believe in them. It will be explained later.**

**4. Songs: I have picked a song to fit each chapter. All of them aren't Christmas carols and I do not own any of these songs I'll use. I have only done the translations.**

**5. Thank you: Thank you goes this time to veros64 who favorited this fic. Hugs, cookies and big thanks to you veros!**

**And now if you please...**

**Write a nice or not-nice review.**

**I appreciate both.**

**Thank you very much in advance.**


	3. Reforming the Protectors

_Hei leijalkaa, hei leijailkaa, te lumihiutaleet. __(Hey float down; hey float down, you snowflakes.)  
Ja vaipan alle verhotkaa jo metsät, mantereet. (And under a snowy cloak bury the forests, the grounds.)  
Nyt joulu saa, nyt joulu saa, siis valkeaksi maa. (Now the Christmas comes, now the Christmas comes, so make the ground white.)_

_Nyt pilviemo jäädä voi; pois maahan leijalkaa. __(Now the Mother Cloud can be left behind, so float away to the ground.)  
Näin kidejoukko karkeloi, kun tuuli tuivertaa. (This's how the group of crystals has fun as the wind blows around.)  
Nyt joulu saa, nyt joulu saa, siis valkeaksi maa. (Now the Christmas comes, now the Christmas comes, so make the ground white.)_

_Nyt liidelkää, nyt kiidelkää. On kulku rattoisaa. __(Now glide around, now speed around. It's__so__fun__ to __travel__.)  
Jo kirkon torni häämöttää ja nietos odottaa. __(The tower of the church is visible and the drifts waiting.)  
Nyt joulu saa, nyt joulu saa, siis valkeaksi maa. (Now the Christmas comes, now the Christmas comes, so make the ground white.)_

_Pian hanki meidät peittelee ja käymme nukkumaan. __(Soon the crust buries us and we go to sleep.)  
Mutt' konsa kevät koittanee, me helmiks muututaan. (But when the spring finally comes, we turn into pearls.)  
Nyt joulu saa, nyt joulu saa, siis valkeaksi maa.__(Now the Christmas comes, now the Christmas comes, so make the ground white.)_

* * *

I couldn't believe how fast the time went forward. In no time it was already February and I was talking with my friends via Internet and talking about my idea of reforming the Protectors. But before that happened also a plenty. We celebrated our first Christmas in the States as a mixture of Finnish and American Christmases. Jamie of course was excited about it. After all we had invited the Bennets for a Christmas dinner and Mother had started to tolerate my choice of friends. How she couldn't have? I hadn't taken any steps backwards from my line and she herself had befriended with Jamie's mother. At least she had some sense when she chose her own friends. Unlike when she tried to choose mine but that was already the snow of the past winter, like we used to say back in Finland…

* * *

"Haaappy Christmas, Laura!" Jamie greeted the girl with a hug as she opened the door. Laura laughed to the boy's enthusiastic attitude and greeted him back.

"Lauwa!" Jamie's toddler sister Sophie took a couple of gangly steps towards the older girl. Jamie let go of Laura so she could catch her before the toddler fell down.

"Hi little one." Laura tickled the baby girl's stomach and made her laugh. Then she greeted Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and guided them to the dining hall where the Christmas tree also was.

"Whoa! It's huge!" Jamie looked at the spruce in awe, his eyes as wide as spoons. Laura looked at it too. The tree indeed was about two and half meters high and really bushy.

"Nah, it's not that tall. Back home we had a three meter high one…" She mused but the boy didn't listen.

"And there are presents already! Even though it's only the 24th."

"Yup. They're part of the decoration at the same time. Usually we open them after the dinner but this year we let them be and open them on tomorrow morning." Laura chuckled and placed Sophie on the floor. The toddler immediately took a course towards the tree. Mrs. Bennet lifted her up though before she could take a hold on any of the decorations and make the tree fall on the floor.

"Aww…That's too bad." Jamie mumbled. "I'm going to greet Axel." And he vanished to the stairs. Laura sighed and looked around her in the dining hall. Mrs. Bennet had seated herself on an armchair nearby Sophie on her lap and was now talking with Laura's mother. Mr. Bennet had disappeared to somewhere with the girl's father. They were probably talking about some of their Do-It-Yourself -projects. The girl sighed and headed to upstairs too. She really wanted to talk with Jack but the Spirit of Winter wasn't there yet. He was making more snow to the other towns of USA and also going around Europe. Sighing, she sat on the window bench and looked outside. The stars shone brightly on the inky blue sky and made the snow glimmer beautifully. A small smile sneaked on her face: after a couple of hours she'd see him finally. Maybe she truly was in love with him but she'd never admit it to anyone, especially not to the boy himself.

The dinner went smoothly. The adults talked about everything possible and the kids minus Sophie talked about what they could do on the next day and what they'd get as presents. Laura was surprisingly happy all night and didn't even bother to get angry on her mother's 'sneaky' comments how she was lonely and didn't have _any_ other friends than Jamie.

* * *

About ten o'clock the Bennets finally left after Sophie had fallen asleep on her mother's lap and Jamie's head started to drop occasionally. Laura and Axel bid good night and merry Christmas to the boy while the adults said good bye to each other. The door closed behind the guests and Lena ushered the kids to upstairs to get ready for a bed. They obeyed but when Laura was in her room she, instead of doing like she was told, took one of her presents she had taken a liberty to carry in her room and opened it. She squealed in delight as she saw the pair of mittens with a matching scarf and a hat. They all were hand knitted by her grandmother who she had been sending letters about her life in States and who had originally told her about Jack Frost. She was also the only one Laura had told about actually meeting _the_ Jack Frost.

The girl was admiring the light blue color of those presents and the sewn snowflakes in them when the window opened and the cold wind blew in. Laura stood up from her bed and wrapped the scarf tightly around her neck.

"Hi Jack." She whispered in the case her mother would step in. The last thing she wanted was her mother thinking she was coming crazy by talking to herself and sent her into an asylum.

"_Hi. Had a good Christmas this far?"_ Appeared on the notepad as usually.

"Yeah… Yes, I have. I'm enjoying the gift Granny sent me. She made these by herself." Laura lifted her mitten covered hands in front of herself. She could feel Jack's cold fingers testing the material.

"_They seem warm. She's talented."_

"These are much warmer than my previous gloves. By the way, she asked me to say hello to you from her."

"_She knows about me?"_

"She was the one who told me about you when I was little."

"_Oh… Tell her I'm grateful for it."_

"I will. How's Europe by the way?" Laura sat on the window bench and managed to find the boy's invisible hand.

"_Fine. I saw North running from house to house in England. He's one busy man."_

"North? As in Santa Claus?"

"_Yeah, the same guy. I tried once to sneak on his workshop. The yetis caught me."_

"Only once?" Laura decided to ignore the fact Jack had told about the yetis instead of elves. Maybe that was something the people didn't know but the immortal ones knew.

"_Okay, a couple of times. But I was kind of tired of being ignored by everyone. I snapped pretty badly on one Easter in -60's. Easter Bunny wasn't too pleased about the blizzard I made."_

"You made a blizzard on Easter?"

"_Yup! On Easter Sunday to be exact."_

"Whoa… Well, I'm not ignoring you. And neither is Axel." Laura squeezed the hand she was holding comfortably.

"_Let's go."_

"To where?"

"_On the roof. To fly. Anywhere."_

"Okay, but let me take another jumper and preferably my shoes. After all I'm quite sensitive to cold… unlike you." The girl let go of the boy's hand and stood up. She sneaked to the closet and pulled her oversized jumper and a pair of winter shoes from the depths of it. After putting them on and adjusting her scarf again (she hadn't taken it off), she took her hat and turned towards the boy who still waited for her.

"_I like the color. It suits you very well."_

"Thanks." Laura stretched out her hand and let Jack take it. Unexpectedly she got pulled out of the window. "Whoa!" She had to slap her free hand on her mouth so she wouldn't scream. After all, Jack was still invisible to her. "And don't you laugh there." She slapped the chuckling boy who wrapped his other arm around her waist on the same way he had done on the previous day when they had discovered he could actually touch her even though she couldn't see him.

A little crouch and they were up, flying with the wind. Laura wrapped her arms around the boy's neck and tried her best so she wouldn't scream. She could feel Jack laughing at her. Instead of getting angry, she squeezed her eyes shut. If she used enough imagination she could 'see' Jack there. It was surprisingly easy actually; thanks to the dreamsand -modified video camera.

"That was the best Christmas present ever." Laura smiled widely as they landed back on the roof of her house. They had been standing on the top of the church tower and walked on the phone wires. They had even seen a shooting star. The most of the time she hadn't spoken anything. That was because it was sometimes a bit awkward that she could talk to him but couldn't hear his responses. "Now, I need to go to sleep." She took a step towards the window of her room but because of the snow on the roof, she started to slid down. But right before she reached the edge something stopped her. Laura touched the thing around her and found the wooden surface of the staff Jack carried always with him. "Thanks…"

* * *

The winter proceeded quickly and in no time Laura found herself in the mid-January, talking to her friends via her computer. Or actually she was in a chat with them.

Kia: - You said you had some idea.  
Laura: - Yes, I did. I have actually thought about this for a while.  
Mari: - Care of sharing that idea with us?  
Laura: - What if we'd reform the Protectors? You remember the idea Kia got almost a year ago?  
Mari: - How could we forget?  
Kia: - Hey! It was a good idea!  
Mari: - I never claimed otherwise. Is Axel also in?  
Laura: I haven't talked with him but I suppose so.  
Kia: - What made your mood change so suddenly then? I still remember you calling me and telling the Protectors are in their end.  
Laura: - There was nothing sudden in it! But I just started to organize my thoughts and realized that even if we are apart we can be the Protectors. No one said we all had to be together.  
Mari: - That's true. Did you think anything else?  
Laura: - Actually I did. You remember when Kia said that every day there are kids who stop believing but there are also kids who start believing? Well, also realized that every one of us carries a little child inside ourselves and it's only up to ourselves how to treat that child.  
Kia: -And?  
Mari: -She's coming to it, right?  
Laura: -Yes. I also thought that what if all children around the world stop believing? The Fairy Tale characters they believe in will weaken and finally stop existing. So the actual job of the protectors is to protect realms like Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and Rooster, Sandman and Tooth Fairy.  
Kia: - …How long time did you spend in thinking that trough?  
Laura: - A couple of weeks. Oh, Axel came in. I let him read what we have talked about.  
Kia: - Well?  
Laura: - He went to his room now. I guess he'll sign in any moment…  
Axel: - Hiya all!  
Mari: - Hello.  
Kia: - Hi, brat.  
Laura: - Kia! That's rude!  
Kia: - But he is a brat.  
Laura: - He's almost thirteen.  
Axel: - Hello? I'm still here.  
Mari: - Yes. We could stay in the actual matter in our hands. What do you think about reforming the Protectors and their job, Axel?  
Axel: - I think it's great! I'm definitely in.  
Kia: - You are?  
Axel: - Yes, and it's good that we have now specified the job we are doing.  
Kia: - You actually are in in this?  
Axel: - Yes! What's so surprising in it?  
Kia: - Nothing!  
Mari: - Where's Laura?  
Axel: - On a date?  
Laura: - No! I was just thinking… things.  
Kia: - Who were you thinking about?  
Mari: - Tell us everything. When did you get a boyfriend?  
Laura: - I do not have a boyfriend.  
Axel: - cough cough, of course not…  
Laura: - Shut up Ax!  
Axel: - Nay.  
Laura: - I started to think about the first project for the Protectors. Any ideas?  
Mari: - Easter? I'm kind of fed up to those impersonal Easter eggs I've found during the years. I know the Bunny/Rooster/both is busy but some of them are just so plain.  
Kia: - I agree. The patterns do are pretty and the pastel colors nice but they're just too similar to each other. Hand painted ones will have soul in them!  
Axel: - And you are actually going to paint some eggs?  
Laura: - Yes. I think this is a wonderful idea. The kids will find eggs with some attitude and imagination!  
Axel: - And how do you plan of doing it? Easter Bunny surely has some mass producing thingy to make and paint those eggs…  
Kia: - And that makes them so impersonal! They're mass!  
Mari: - Well, I think we could melt chocolate and pour it in to some mold. And when the chocolate has solidified we can cover them with paper we have painted in _a personal way_.  
Kia: - Whoa, that'll be one a mammoth of a project!  
Laura: - We better start early then.  
Axel: - Not so fast! I'll definitely not-  
Laura: - Sorry, Ax, but you have no choice. You said five minutes ago you are in.  
Kia: - This is the dictatorship of the majority.  
Mari: - In other words democracy.  
Axel: - Aaargh!

* * *

On that night Laura went to sleep a smile on her face. She placed her key necklace next to Jack's notepad on the window bench. That was something she had taken as a habit after the New Year. Her friends and Axel did the same thing. By doing it they were, in a way, closer to each other. After all the keys had been purchased together at the same time and used by the only people who were the Protectors and knew about them. And the Man in the Moon got an idea about that. He decided to make those keys something the teens could use in their mission in protecting the belief of the children and at the same time protecting the Guardian he himself had chosen during the years. But he wouldn't tell about this little 'trick' to anyone. MiM was that kind of person who preferred others to find out with the time.

"_Key of the Snow: to make a way to safety.  
Key of the Ice: to shield others.  
Key of the Swords: to fight against evil.  
Key of the Colors: to make imagination blossom."_

* * *

The Friday before Easter Sunday

"I will not eat any chocolate at least in five years after this." Axel huffed as he painted pink and violet flowers on yellow paper and then wrapping it around a three-inch-high chocolate egg. Laura lifted her gaze from the egg paper she was painting. It was dark blue and had a short man with spikey but soft hair and golden yellow suit. Around the man were artistic golden yellow dreamsand streams.

"C'mon Ax. Two more days left." She courage the boy and moved the done paper cover aside to dry. "And didn't I say to let the papers dry before wrapping them around the eggs?"

"And twenty more eggs…" Axel mumbled and unwrapped the egg he had already placed in a basket. "Where do you get those ideas by the way? I have only done these… Boring ones… Flowers, butterflies, eggs, bunnies, chicks, grass, cars… Blah blah blah…"

"Cars?"

"I wanted to do something else than just girly things so I painted also cars, motorbikes, firemen, policemen, police dogs…"

"Well, I suppose boys will like them." Laura shrugged. "And about my pictures… I have had some weird dreams lately. It might be because I have slept my curtains open and the moon has shone into my room but…"

"Tell me about it. I've slept weirdly too."

"Slept weirdly?" The girl flashed an amused smile to her brother before continuing with the next paper in front of her. This one was grass green and had a brown boomerang and little colorful eggs (the impersonal ones) in it.

"Shut up…"

"Well, you have three more eggs to do today. As you know it's-..."

"…-Ten eggs per face per day. Yes, I know."

"Actually we will do fifteen eggs per face tomorrow and then only five on Saturday."

"And why's that?" Axel narrowed his eyes to the girl.

"Because on the night between Saturday and Easter Sunday we have to go and hide all these eggs so the kids can find these."

"Urgh! I had forgotten that…"

"Well, lucky for you... I have already gone around and looked for suitable places for these eggs. And I even drew a map!" Laura took a scrolled paper under the kitchen table and gave it to Axel. "Feel free to get to know it but I recommend you to paint the missing three eggs before it."

"Just give me a little break! Five minutes!"

* * *

Easter Sunday

Laura sat down on a picnic table and yawned. Being up almost the whole night really tired her. But that was only a part of being a human. And the night had been truly magical! She had seen how the Easter Bunny's eggs had actually walked to their hiding places and how the dreamsand had painted the sky again. She had also seen how little hummingbird like fairies went to kids' rooms and fetched the baby teeth that had been placed under pillows.

But now she was done and taking a short break before going home. Fortunately her parents were out of the town, had been the whole week. That was how she and Axel had managed to make all those chocolate eggs. Unfortunately the reason they were elsewhere was that they were visiting relatives in Finland and had left the two of them behind. Laura and Axel both had been really pissed off after hearing about it but then had decided not to care.

Loud rustling noise woke the girl up in her thoughts. She jumped on her feet and grabbed the basket, that still had a couple of eggs, next to her.

"Hello? Who's there?" No answer. "I warn you… You don't wanna mess up with me. No one wants."

"_After all I'm a Protector."_ She added in her mind to calm herself down. She could sense someone nearby but she knew it wasn't Jack. But she did know it was someone invisible.

"Who does she think she is? No one can win me, E. Aster Bunnymund." Bunny mumbled to himself from the bushes. "Besides what is she thinking of doing here?"

"Hey, I know you are there. Come out already whoever you are!" Laura called again and took one of her Easter eggs from the basket she carried. "I'm armed!"

"Armed with what?" The pooka snorted. But that was before he got hit by a chocolate egg. "Ouch! What the heck was that?" He picked up the egg. It was silvery grey and had golden vines painted in it. "Not bad handwork…"

"I told you to come out!" Another egg came flying to Bunny's direction but someone else slid past and caught it in midair. The cold wind blew on the picnic place and a short ice slide appeared.

"Frost!" The Winter Spirit glanced at the Easter Spirit and chuckled.

"It seems I saved your neck – or head – kangaroo." He laughed and twirled the light blue egg in his fingers.

"Jack!" Laura exclaimed happily and took a run to the boy who still remained invisible to her. On half way there she slipped on the ice Jack had produced by his arrival. The spirit caught her but the basket she had carried fell and all the remaining eggs scattered on the ground.

"I supposed I should be sorry for making you fall but I'm not." Jack mused quietly as he helped the girl back on her feet. Then he picked up the notepad that had been with her too and started to write on it.

"Frost, what you are doing here?" Bunny stepped out of the bush he had been hiding and straightened into his full height.

"Visiting a friend."

"Jack, is someone else here too? I can feel someone other's presence here." Laura asked quietly. The both spirits looked at her and then each other before Jack Frost sighed.

"Somehow I guessed this…" He overlined the parts he had already written and wrote another line under it. Then he shoved it to the girl.

"_Only me and the Easter Kangaroo. Say, how's your project going on?"_

"Easter Kangaroo?" Laura repeated.

"_Yeah, he… nevermind. Say, you can't see him either, can you?"_

"No, it's the same thing than with you. I can feel your presence and touch you but I can't see you or hear you. Bloody annoying…" The girl crossed her arms and sighed. "Would you help me a bit? These are the eggs I planned on saving to Axel and myself." She indicated the eggs on the ground and picked up her basket.

"_Sure. But can I keep this one?" _Jack lifted the blue egg a bit higher. Now Bunny could see a brown and frosty blue staff with a 'G' painted on it and surrounded by tiny snowflakes.

"Why not. I made a bit too much of these eggs anyways."

"Finally you admit it!" Another voice joined in. The three turned to see a boy with an empty basket nearby. He was wearing a pair of black jeans and a blue hoodie.

"Axel, are you done already?"

"Yes, I have hidden the all thirty-seven eggs around Burgess and I'm not doing it again."

"Well, we have one year time to relax. Besides I hid fifty-three eggs." Laura sighed.

"Didn't you hear me? I'm not doing it again! Never ever never!"

"Ax… Don't make me do this…"

"Do what?"

"This." The girl leaped on the yelping boy and pinned him on the ground. "If I were you I'd close my eyes and mouth now." She pulled a hair dye spray bottle out of her light green hoodie's pocket and started to spray her brothers light brown hair. After a half a minute Laura let Axel, who now had white hair, go. The boy glared at her angrily.

"I'll make you pay for this… One day… Just wait…" He mumbled as he got up and dashed away.

"Aww… that brought back some memories…" Laura chuckled and noticed then a full basket hovering next to her. "Oh, thanks." She took it with a smile and read a new message from Jack.

"_What kind of memories did that bring back?"_

"Memories behind three years I guess. I did that thing to Axel and ever since my friends and I started to call _him _Jack Frost or Jacky. Even his middle name is Jack so we thought it fit him. Besides didn't he just look just like you?"

"Oh, that's what we needed. Two arrogant cold makers…" Bunny mumbled angrily.

"Don't mock the boy, Kangaroo." Jack smirked and dodged the boomerang. The flying weapon flew right past Laura and made her hair flutter.

"Whoa… What was that?" She asked and looked at Bunny's direction.

"_Kangaroo just lost his temper."_

"Kangaroo… Right…" The girl frowned. "The Easter Isles are near Australia… And if it's like in _there_... I suppose it fits."

"What fits? And what if something is like in _where_?" The pooka grumbled.

"I don't know." Jack shrugged and placed the notepad on the girl's basket.

"You're leaving already? Okay. See you later. I got to go too and get some sleep." Laura smiled before a yawn. "Happy Easter to you both."

* * *

The beginning of May

It was now three weeks after Jack Frost had left to the other half of the globe. Laura was lying on her bed without doing anything useful. Her mother had complained about it several times but as long as it didn't influence on the girl's school work the woman couldn't really do anything. Laura did spent time with Jamie and his friends but right now she was on 'the phase when you only waited for the next season', like Axel dubbed it. And her continuing strange dreams didn't help the situation at all. Except she had taken them as a benefit for the Protectors and started to tell them to the kids next door as fairy tales.

Axel stepped into the room of his sister and found her lying there, still in her pajamas. "You know… If you don't leave soon, you'll be late from school."

"What?!" Laura bolted up. "Why didn't you…? You should have…"

"Just hurry." The boy sighed and watched as the girl dashed around the room, looking for suitable clothes and packing her bag at the same time. In ten minutes she was already out of the door and running along the street.

"How amazing… she forgot her cell phone but did remember her necklace." Axel thought aloud and exited the room.

* * *

Laura ran as fast as she could. Like she had had a fire under her tail. But unfortunate for her the whole Burgess seemed to be against her. Every single traffic light turned red when she reached them and every person she passed wanted to change a couple of words with her.

"Don't they see I'm in hurry? I hope they wouldn't see me at all right now." She grumbled and stumbled on her own feet. She grimaced in advance because this time Jack or anyone else wouldn't catch her before hitting the hard ground.

"The Key of Snow opens the way elsewhere." Laura muttered under her breath. It took a millisecond for her to realize what she had said before the Key necklace twisted in the air in the same way one would have used it to open a lock in a door. A snowflake full of bright white light appeared on the pavement under her and flashed, blinding her for a moment.

When the light died down Laura's body finally hit the ground.

"Ouch… Face first on the concrete… Not nice…"

"Oh, it seems Sommers is face down on the ground again. Just like she's supposed to be." A voice she knew far too well said behind her. Slowly, Laura sat up and looked behind. Jaslene, Marilyn and Camilla stood there, blocking the whole pavement. The blonde frowned at the sight of them where one of them had long black hair, one a short curly mess of chestnut brown and one a spiky radish red something. But the next thing that attracted Laura's attention was that she wasn't anymore where she had been. Now she was right outside of the school gates… and in time. But she hid her astonishment and scowled at the three girls.

"What now Weston?" She drawled.

"Oh nothing special Sommers. I was just so delighted to see you crawling on the ground." Jaslene smirked and the girls behind her giggled.

"Well, I'm happy you are on a good mood now because most likely you won't be like that anymore in ten minutes. And that's because we'll have a little exam today in history." The blonde continued as the black haired girl's face fell.

"You must be joking!"

"Why would I joke to you?" Laura sighed and got up. "After all you don't have any sense of humor or any talent of recognizing sarcasm." She sighed and walked through the school gates. She really had to think through what had just happened. How an earth was possible that she… because of the lack of better word, teleported over five hundred meters and without anyone else noticing it?

* * *

Laura got some of her answers on her way home. Jaslene and her… goons had gotten some bright idea of following her and finding out where she lived. Like they didn't already know since Lena and Rosaria(Jaslene's mother) were friends. But Laura didn't like the idea of being followed so she started to run. And the threesome ran after her! Surprisingly fast actually.

"_Oh, gosh, how could I forget that Weston is a cheerleader in a good fit? And Camilla plays soccer…"_ The blonde turned behind a corner and hid in the midst of trash barrels (them were real barrels made of some cheap wood…). "Don't find me… don't follow me… don't see me… don't hear me…" She started to chant to herself.

"She turned here!"

"What an idiot. That's a dead end!"

"But it has a lot of hiding places."

"Well, go find her then!"

Marilyn and Camilla stepped on the alley Laura was hiding in and started to look behind the barrels and other objects. A couple of times their eyes swept past Laura but they didn't stop or yelled: 'Here she is!' The blond watched them in horror. She didn't want to admit it but she really was scared by them. And that was only because she was alone against everyone else in the school. Even the teachers wouldn't listen to her because Jaslene was the queen of the whole school with beauty, talent (not much) and money (a lot). After several minutes the two girls left the alley, shaking their heads, and Laura released the air she had been holding.

"What was that? Didn't they see me? I was in plain sight." She asked aloud and got slowly on her feet. She was dusting her jeans when the sight she saw made her stop. Her hands and legs were transparent. And that made her assume the rest of her body was also like that; transparent or even invisible. And the Key she wore was shining dimly.

"I have to get back to normal." Those words had barely left her lips when her hands got their full color back and she couldn't see through them anymore. Laura took her bag on the ground and placed it safely on her shoulder. She also took the Key and lifted it in front of her eyes. It wasn't shining anymore. Letting the necklace drop she said the only sentence she could think of: "What an earth was that?"

* * *

Laura sat on the window bench and looked up to the moon. She played with the chain of the Key absent-mindedly. During the evening she had tested the newly found power. She had turned herself invisible and walked around the house. For herself she was just transparent but for everyone else completely invisible. But why she was able to do that… And she still didn't know how she had teleported but did know why no one had noticed it.

"What did I say back then? The Key of Snow… opens the way elsewhere…?" The girl thought aloud. And again a shiny snowflake appeared under her and she was gone.

"Jack's pond. Why did I come here… of all places?" Laura got on her feet and looked around. She hadn't visited the place in ages. It surely looked different in brown and green instead of white and frozen grey. "I have to get back…" She grasped the Key and lifted it in a way she'd use it on a door. "I need to concentrate this time. Otherwise I'll end up to some completely wrong place. I need also some better password…"

The girl took a deep breath and thinking of her own room she twisted the Key and said: "Snow Gate, Open!"

* * *

**A/N: Hello again! What did you think this time? Personally I liked this chapter.**

**1. Jamie: Like you noticed from the previous chapter, he doesn't believe in Jack Frost yet. I don't wanna mess up with canon so...**

**2. Time line: This chapter took place a year before the movie. In a couple of chapters we'll reach the happenings in RotG so wait up patiently.**

**3. MiM: He really likes messing up, doesn't he? He even managed to influence the dreams of Laura dn Axel so they'd learn what the Guardians look like even though they can't see them yet in real life. More will be explained eventually.**

**Now, I say goodbye again.**

**I hope to meet you soon.**

**Please review.**

**And happy New Year.**

**:)**


	4. Summer of the lifetime

_Tuiki, tuiki tähtönen,  
iltaisin sua katselen.  
Korkealla loistat vaan,  
Katsot alas maailmaan.  
__Tuiki, tuiki tähtönen  
iltaisin sua katselen._

* * *

The summer. Probably the best season of the whole year. Okay, it actually tied with the winter. They are too different to compare properly. But at least this summer I was able to fly back to Finland and meet up with my friends. We truly had awesome time during the midsummer which we spent at the summer place of our family. It had been a whole year since the last time I had seen them. And that wasn't the only thing that happened. I found out that us all… I mean all four Protectors and their Keys had some powers. It was pretty amazing to find out because I hadn't told anyone what I had happened in May…

* * *

"Finally here!" Kia shouted and dropped her sports bag on the ground. Laura snickered at her while Axel rolled his eyes and Mari yawned. She had slept the whole one and half an hour ride but it seemed it hadn't been enough.

"Okay, who comes to swim?" Laura asked the other three.

"Me!" Kia raised her hand in the air.

"I'll pass…"Mari mumbled and crouched down to rummage her back bag. "Aha." She pulled out a sketch pad, a pencil case and a sun hat with a big brim. On her neck hang the black Key. Laura frowned at the sight of it, thinking if that Key also had some special powers.

"I guess I'll come later too." Axel shrugged. Kia huffed.

"Fine then, Laura and I will have fun without you two killjoys… Come, Laurie…" She seized the blonde's arm and started to drag her inside so they could change into their swim suits.

"Did you swallow a ton of sugar or something? Or why you are so hyper?"

"No… I'm just so happy that you are back." Kia smiled to Laura… well, happily.

"But only for two and half weeks."

"But even that's better than nothing!"

* * *

Midsummer and bonfires were magical. Truly magical. Especially when you sat with your best friends through the night and spent your time with telling jokes, stories, or just having fun. The Protectors also had their bonfire which was more like a campfire.

"We need some music. What would you like to listen?" Axel asked while browsing the playlists of his cellphone.

"Muse!" Laura and Mari answered immediately.

"Anything goes." Kia shrugged. "But we need some more drink." She looked at the empty lemonade bottle. "And ice of course."

"I can get the bottles." Laura offered and stood up. Axel ended choosing the song and pressed 'PLAY'.

"That's not Muse. That's Radiohead. Did you do that only to annoy us?" Mari protested immediately.

"Sorry, I don't have any songs from Muse. How about Linkin Park?" The boy smiled innocently.

"Anything's better than _that_ band…" The dark haired girl huffed.

"That's one of the few things you are picky…" Kia grinned, glancing at her watch. It was 1:48am now. "Is someone getting the ice?"

"We don't have any ice left." Laura answered to her. "That's a pity though… The ice cold drinks are the best on hot summer days."

"It's not really 'a day' right now, Laurie." Kia pointed out. "But pretty warm it is in any case…" She trailed off as she saw Axel raising his hand and opening his throat.

"Ahem, I'd like to take the responsibility of getting some ice for us."

"Ax, the freezer is empty. E-M-P-T-Y. Tu ne moi comprendre pas?" Laura sighed at her brother's stupidy. "Besides, even if you go there and make some new ice cubes, it takes hours to freeze."

"Ah, yes, you are right. But I'm not going to go there and start making them. I'll just sit here and…" He waved his Key above his recently-filled glass and an icicle dropped in there. "I'm not called Axel Ice for nothing. Cheers!" He raised the glass and took a sip.

"How did you do that?!" Kia exclaimed.

"With my Key. I found quite accidentally that ability couple of days before the end of the school." The boy shrugged.

"What did you do then? I remember some vapor coming under your door and you didn't want to let me in." Laura asked with a great amount of curiosity in her voice.

"I managed to create a nice icy grass mat on my floor. You can't believe how much it hurt when I fell on it." Axel grimaced at the memory and rubbed his chest a bit. "It took only five seconds to appear but almost fifteen minutes to disappear."

"So you also fell down and activated you Key…" Kia asked.

"You too?" Laura and Axel said simultaneously. The boy looked at his sister curiously and asked her: "Did that also happen to you?"

"Yeah, when I was late from school I tripped and the Key kind of twisted in the air. The next thing I knew was that I was right outside of the school gates. And later when I was chased by the Princess Trio I turned myself invisible to them. Later I discovered that I can control who can see me at the times."

"It was you? I thought I was hallucinating when I could see through you!" Axel's jaw dropped.

"Uh, yes… I can see myself transparently but the ones I don't want to see me can't see me at all."

"How do you do that?" Kia was practically jumping up and down on her seat.

"I just need to say something along the lines: 'No one can see me'. And tadaa!" The three gaped at the girl who was now transparent to them. "And now, you can't see me at all." Laura continued and turned completely invisible.

"That's true." Mari poked the air where her friend was supposed to be.

"Ouch! That was my neck!" Laura came visible now and was rubbing the side of her neck. "Kia, you said you also fell down and something happened with you too."

"Yep, that was quite dangerous actually. It was during one weekend in April and we were cleaning up our summer cottage. I had gotten one of the stupidest jobs ever: cleaning the eaves and the drainpipes from dead leaves. So there I was sitting on the slippery roof and picking the leaves. I finished the job eventually and tossed the black plastic bag on the ground and stood up." Kia stopped and shook her head. "I was so stupid…"

"What did you do then?" Axel frowned.

"I decided to stretch a bit because I had been in such a cramped position during the whole thirty minutes. And my rubber boot slipped. I was falling off the roof when this Key started to glow and in no time I found myself sitting on a golden sword which was stuck on the wall."

"Well, all I can say right now is: at least that matches with your Key." Laura took a sip from her glass and started to stare the fire then. "How about you Mari?"

"Huh?"

"We have told now what has happened to us in the past two months. How about you? Has anything happened to you?" Axel clarified.

"Well, I have discovered that my Key also changes its shape and I can do actually pretty many different things." Mari smiled shyly. "I can color dreams and feed the imagination of children."

"Sounds cool. How do you do it then?" Kia encouraged the tall girl to tell more.

"Like this." She took her black Key and twirled it in her fingers really fast until it turned into a paint brush. The handle of it was the same shiny black color as the Key had been and the brushes had all possible colors in them. And in the handle was also written 'The Protector Key of Colors'. "I can do anything!" Mari stood up and started to make strokes in the air like she was painting it. And she was doing indeed that thing! She painted animals, birds, fishes, stars, flowers… Anything in any color one could imagine to exist! And everything she painted was alive and moving around the camp fire.

"That's amazing!" Laura looked at a purple parrot that sat on her arm. "These look like they're made of dreamsand. Just in different color."

"This is one kind of dreamsand I suppose." Mari sat down and smiled at her rabbits that sat next to her and looked at her with their light green eyes. "The wind is rising. Go now. Go to the dreams of children." She told to the animals that got up and raced to the nightly sky.

"We are awesome, aren't we?" Kia smiled brightly and laid back on the ground.

"We? We don't even know where we got these abilities." Axel chuckled.

"I suppose this has something to do with MiM." Laura said thoughtfully.

"Who's MiM?" Mari asked.

"The Man in the Moon. Jack told me about him."

"Jack? Your boyfriend?" Kia's head perked up and Laura facepalmed.

"Just a friend. Jack Frost. You remember when we talked about him? When we used to be together?"

"How could we forget…?" Came a mumble from the short girl's direction.

"So you met him finally?" Mari asked interestedly.

"We both met but couldn't see him until a dreamsand stream went through my video camera and we could start using that to see him." Axel explained. "We are still trying to find out why we can see him or anyone else like that even though we can sense their presence."

"Anyways he told me that MiM is pretty secretive nature. During the three hundred years Jack has existed MiM had only told him his name but that's it. Jack knows nothing else. And we are the only ones who believe in him, the only ones who has ever believed in him."

"That's horrible!" Kia sat up. You mean no one, _ever_, has ever seen him?"

"Yes, and even Ax and I can't see him even though we do believe in him and can even touch him." Laura's face turned solemn. "What if we are just too old to believe?"

"No, we are not. Don't start that again. This must be just sort of a test…" Kia trailed off.

"A test?" Mari repeated.

"Yes, that must be it. This is just a test from MiM so he can see if we are suitable ones to be The Protectors. By not allowing us to see the Fairy Tale characters he tests are our beliefs strong enough. And if he sees they are then we probably will be allowed to see. Eventually." Kia ended her explanation and nodded her head. She obviously seemed proud by her reasoning.

"That makes sense… in some way or another…" Axel mused but added: "I suppose."

"Don't suppose, just agree with me."

"I agree with you." Mari smiled, drawing some abstract spirals in the air. Suddenly some of those spirals changed their color into pure white and formed words.

"'You are correct.' What the…?" Kia frowned after reading the sentence.

"It seems you indeed got the point of what MiM is doing." Laura laughed and earned a slap on her stomach. She collapsed on the ground, still laughing. "I'm so happy I have friends like you."

"Same here." Axel laid back too and the other two girls copied him. It was their best summer together ever!

* * *

For the rest of the summer Laura and Axel returned to Burgess. They spent time playing with Jamie, practicing their newly-found skills and exploring the forest nearby. One night they were on a walk there when they came across with something very peculiar. It was a little forest opening surrounded by spruce trees but it was the thing in the middle of the opening that made the sight so unusual. An old-fashioned child's bed stood there without any visible reason. The bed was made of wood and didn't have any mattress or pillow on it. It looked like it was placed there so no one would fall into the whole that was right under it.

"Whoa, how deep is that?" Laura got on her knees and peered in. It was only darkness. "You don't happen to have a flashlight with you, Ax?"

"No, I don't." Axel huffed and crossed his arms. "Hey, what are you doing?" He grabbed the back of the girl's shirt as she stretched her neck closer and deeper. "You'll fall if you do that!"

"Uh, sorry sorry…" The girl sighed and got up, but not before hitting her head on the bottom of the bed. "Ouch!"

"You were asking for it."

"Shut up." Laura mumbled, rubbing the back of her head. She looked at the bed thoughtfully. "Does that remind you of anything?"

"If it's something supernatural or Fairy Tale-like, then yes. Boggart under the bed, right?"

"Boggart is the term from the Harry Potter books but yeah… I suppose that will do."

"Let's go… This place gives me an uneasy feeling…" Axel wrapped his arms around himself and shivered slightly.

"You know what? Me too. Or at least my necklace went berserk." They looked at their Key necklaces, The round parts of them – the snowflake and the ice flower – were shining brightly and the chain was turning cold and hot really quickly. "Is this… a warning?"

"Might be. Let's get going now before something bad happens." Axel grabbed Laura's wrist and dragged her away from the bed and the hole on the ground.

"Scared?"

"No. I haven't been scared by the boggart since I was eight."

"Me neither. I don't even have nightmares unless I have read or watched something really scary. But even if I have nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night, I just put the lights on." The girl shrugged and watched to night sky. "Starts are so pretty…"

"Like little ice crystals." Axel admitted.

"Oh, I thought they were burning gas balls zillions of kilometers away." Laura stated mockingly.

"Nope: they're fireflies, stuck in that black… thing." The thirteen-year-old boy answered seriously. His sister could hold it anymore and burst out in laughing.

"That was funny. I can't believe you just quoted the Lion King movie."

"Hey, Timon and Pumba are awesome!"

* * *

"Okay… I'm not saying anything yet. I have to digest this bit of information for a while. Maybe a couple of days, preferably weeks." Laura waved her hands wildly and sat down on the nearest chair. "Are you sure?" She looked at her mother.

"Yes, I went to doctor a couple of weeks ago and he confirmed it." Lena smiled. Laura hadn't seen the woman as happy as she was now. The girl looked to her left. Axel sat still. He looked almost like a stone statue. Or then he had played too much with his ice Key and frozen his face.

"Okay… Okay… I think I have now accepted the situation now. Then I have to just adjust to it… Gosh, I'm going to be a big sister… Not that I'm not already but I'm going to be a big sister for a second time. And Ax will be a big brother."

"You are rambling, Laurie. But yeah, the situation really needs some digesting. Congratulations mum anyways…" The boy stood up and headed upstairs. Laura stood up too – almost jumped.

"Have you thought about the name yet?"

"Yes… A bit. I'll tell you later."

"Okay!" Laura hurried upstairs and put her shoes on (she kept always a couple of shoe pairs in her room). She climbed carefully on the roof and looked at Jamie's house then. "Nihihi…" She run to get some speed and jumped.

_Thump_

The girl landed softly on the roof of the Bennets' house and slid down carefully. Luckily Jamie's window was open so she could swing herself in. The boy was sitting on his bed and reading some comics. He didn't get surprised about her sudden visit. It had happened a couple of times already during the summer.

"Hi, Laura. What's up?" He greeted the girl.

"Hi, Jamie. Guess what?" Laura sat on the edge of the boy's bed and grinned like a maniac.

"Uh, well… I can't really guess because it can be anything." Jamie raised his eyebrows.

"Right… My mum… is going to have a baby. She mentioned the baby is due on the next Easter or something like that. The late March or early April."

"Whoa, that's amazing! You are going to be a big sister… for the second time."

"I know. I'm so excited. I can't wait to know is it a girl or a boy. Or what the name will be. Mum said they aren't going to know beforehand the baby's sex so… I have to wait forever." Laura grabbed her hair and shook her head violently until she fell off the bed. "Ouch… why I'm so prone of accidents…"

"Because you are Laura Sommers?" Jamie suggested.

"Oh, do shut up!"

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry this is a bit shorter than the other ones. I just didn't know what else I could tell about their summer... And the song doesn't have any translation because it's Twinkle, twinkle little star. I didn't want to spoil it with my imperfect and horrible attempt... And a couple of things again...**

**1. Burgess: I have placed that town in Philadelphia but I've read some other fic writes placing it in Pemmsylvania. I don't know which one is correct so no flames please if I'm wrong, because I'm not going to correct it.**

**2. Mari's abilities: She is not trying to take Sandy's place. Her drawings are only outlines while Sandy makes solid things.**

**3. Nick-names: I know Laura and Kia both called Axel 'Jacky' but they aren't really doing it anymore because of Jack Frost. Instead the kid is now 'Ax'. I also gave nick-name for Laura. 'Laurie' sounds pretty nice and boyish, doesn't it?**

**4. Keys: I finally made a cover. If you take a look on it you can see(starting from left upper corner and continuing clockwisely): Kia's, Mari's, Laura's and Axel's Keys.**

**5. Thank you: Thanks for I'm Yu and gralu4ever for faving this story. And thanks for gralu4ever for following me and this story and faving me. :D**

**And the time you have been waiting for ever since you noticed the new chapter...**

**Time to write and send some review!**

**Thank you very much.**

**:)**


	5. Winter is finally back!

_Mä elän varmaan… (I'm probably living…)  
väärää aikaa… __(the wrong time…)  
väärää aikaa… (the wrong time…)_

_Ilma nousee höyryten, (The air is rising steaming,)  
vieressäni askeleet (next to me the steps)  
mä kuulen narskuvan. (I can hear to crunch.)  
__Sä oot niin kuin pakkanen. (You are like a frost.)_

_Sinun kuulen sentäs sanovan, (At least I hear you to say)  
että oon sun kohtalosi. (that I'm your destiny.)  
Meidän pitää odottaa (We just have to wait)  
vain seuraavaan elämään. (until the next life.)_

* * *

It's hard to say did the winter come quickly or slowly. It was probably the both. At one moment I was cursing the beginning of the school and on the next one I was making some Jack O'Lanterns and finding myself staring the calendar and the last day of October. And a bit after that arguing with my pregnant mother whether to celebrate the Thanksgiving day or not. In my opinion she was Americanizing too fast. And when my father came to support me the argument was already won. That day ended happily and the night continued the same excellent way of turning out when Jack came back. Heck, this whole winter was full of things waiting to happen.

* * *

Laura was sleeping soundly under her warm duvet and smiling slightly in her sleep. Jack Frost smiled at the sight he saw and landed on the window sill. It was well past midnight already so he wasn't surprised the girl was already asleep. Even Sandman had gone to the next time zone to put other children asleep. Quietly the Spirit of Winter opened the window and jumped into the room. It hadn't changed at all while he had been away. Laura had though. Her hair was longer now, well past her shoulders, and she seemed to be slightly taller too: The boy couldn't see properly since she was curled up under the duvet.

Smirking, Jack bended forward, leaning against his staff, and blew coldly on Laura's sleeping face. The girl shivered a bit but continued sleeping a small frown on her face. The spirit sighed and pulled the duvet away. Now the reaction saw immediate. She jumped up, grabbed the duvet and laid back again. She was now wide awake though, thanks to the open window and the cold air that had filled the room. Laura blinked a couple of times as she stared through Jack the open window before a realization hit her sleepy brain.

"Jack? You are back?" She whispered. The boy sat on the edge of her bed and took her warm hand into his cold one.

"I still can't see you…" The girl mumbled and placed her left hand on Jack's right hand that was now sandwiches between hers. She smiled slightly to the boy and seemed to be thinking hard about something. Jack leaned closer and pressed his forehead against hers and gave her a searching look. Laura jumped a bit the sudden touch but relaxed soon. She knew what the Winter Spirit was asking. She had learnt to read his behavior and the air around him even though she couldn't see him.

"I'm alright… I just… During the summer I found out why Axel and I can't see you." Laura told quietly without looking at him. "It's MiM. He's… um, shielding us from seeing. He wants to test how strongly we believe in holiday spirits before letting us see." She didn't want to mention anything about the Protectors yet. Maybe a bit later. Maybe when she could finally see Jack Frost.

Jack watched her in silence. He could see she was hiding something from him. Just like she had learnt to read him, he could easily see when something was wrong. There was something else than just a test from MiM. But he didn't pressure the girl to tell.

"It's alright. Everything will be alright…" The boy enveloped Laura into a hug. "You don't know how much I missed you…"

That one might Laura sat with Jack, tightly hugging him. The whole seven months she had been waiting for him and he was finally back. The words weren't even enough to express how happy she was.

* * *

The days slipped into the routine that had developed during the previous winter. The mornings and days Laura and Axel were at school. After that they did their homework and had a nice snowball fight or built a snowman or a part of a snow castle with Jamie and other kids. During the evenings Laura went to the pond to skate and spent time with Jack. And when the night fell the three of them sat on the roof of their house and watching the dreamsand fly around and bring dreams to little children.

It wasn't until the eighteenth of December, the last advent when something happened. Something only the Protectors noticed. That something happened in Finland and had gone without a notice unless the Easter Rooster or the Rooster of ABC book had come to meet Kia.

The 5th December, Kia's house

"Great job Neo. Now, would you read me this sentence?" Kia told gently to the six-year-old boy who was lying on his stomach next to her on the floor of the living room.

"Anne says… 'I am ve-ry wor-ri-ed. Whe-re is Mi-ke?'." Neo read aloud from his ABC book. Kia patted his back.

"Well done. You have learnt very well everything I have taught to you. Now, go to brush your teeth and go to your bed." She smiled and the little boy got up. He was already wearing his pajamas and when he was at the door way he turned around a worried expression on his face.

"Kia? Will the Rooster surely come?"

"I'm hundred percent sure he will. You have worked so hard."

"Okay."

On the night Kia sneaked into the room where Neo slept and was placing a candy between his ABC book when she heard something from the corner of the room. She whipped around, her sword ready, and met with a sight of a giant rooster. The bird stopped the golden blade easily with his wing.

"You have strength and will but no ability." He said with a British accent and twisted the sword out of Kia hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you, young Protector. I'm the Rooster of the ABC books. The name is Russell but I'm also called Rusty." With a little twirl the sword was turned back into the Key form. "I happened to hear about your group and decided to offer my help." He handed the Key back to the stunned girl. Kia took it carefully before speaking.

"You are willing to help me?" She asked.

"Yes, and your friends who have been chosen to this path. Shall we go now?"

"To where? And how?"

"Climb on my back, just don't pull my feathers too much. We will fly a bit." The bird continued as the teen climbed on and adjusted herself to sit rather steadily. "Oh, I almost forgot…" He rummaged his feathers a bit and placed then a candy between the open ABC book. "A little price for young Neo Lockster."

"Where are we going?" Kia managed to ask before the giant rooster took off from the balcony.

"We stop by your friend and the wielder of Protector Key of Colors but then we head to Belgium."

"Belgium?"

"That's where my house is. Watch out now, we are landing." They landed softly on the roof of the tower block building where Mari lived. From the living room window Kia could see her friend was still awake. The bluish light told the television was open.

"Mari?" The brunette jumped the sudden voice.

"For goodness sake, Kia, you gave me a heart attack. How did you get in?" Mari asked the girl who stood now in front of her.

"I have to ask Rusty how he did it. Anyways, you have to come with me. There is something important we have to find out and learn or something."

"Where are we going then? And who's Rusty?"

"The Rooster. Grab my hand now; we are in hurry."

* * *

The two girls looked at the comfy cabin in the middle of the forest. It was warm brown and had a turquoise roof. Actually it had the same colors than the Rooster's feathers had.

"Come in. Would you like some tea?" The bird ushered the girl's inside. The insides of the cabin were much spacer than it let one assume from outside.

"No thanks, if I understood right you wanted to talk about something. Something important." Kia declined politely.

"Right… Do sit down now. This'll take some time…" Mari looked at her friend who shrugged and they sat on two arm chairs.

"As you know by now, I'm the Rooster of the ABC books. Sometimes I'm also known as the Easter Rooster. I suppose that started in the 18th century when I had to take Canada, the whole Europe, northern parts of Africa, the majority of Russia and China under my wings. Young Aster had gotten a bad flu and couldn't deliver the eggs like he was supposed to so I offered my help. The situation remained like that for a century then… Aster wanted his job to himself completely. I refused to give up my territory. A fight resumed until 1868 when young Jack Frost made a blizzard in the United States of America and really caused trouble for Aster. I won our fight because of that."

"Excuse me, sir? How this has anything to do with us?" Mari asked politely.

"Well, surely you have to know who I am and why I'm doing two jobs at the same time." The Rooster sat on another armchair(a bigger one) opposite the girls a tea cup in his wings. "Where was I? Yes… the year 1868… I told Aster that if something happens to him and he is unable to deliver the eggs, what will happen to the belief of children if he has the entire world on his responsibility. That shut his and the rest of the Guardians' mouths but only after I gave him the rest of Africa and China. We have been in civil terms ever after that but I think he will never forgive me. Well, it's not easy to do two jobs at the same time but fortunate for me Easter is only once a year.

"And that, my dears, was the back story of Alfred Brian Charlie Russell aka ABC Rooster." The Rooster smiled to them. Kia was quiet for a moment.

"Two questions, mr. Rooster. Who is Aster and what are the guardians?" She raised two fingers to emphasize her point.

"Ah, yes. I forgot you don't know. Manny hasn't told you anything."

"MiM leads us into the third question. How come we can see you?" Mari stated before sipping the tea she had accepted while Kia had declined.

"Yes… Yes… Aster's full name is E. Aster Bunnymund. He is also known as the Easter Bunny as you probably guessed by now. And the Guardians… I myself refused joining in but right now that group has four members: Nicholas St. North aka Santa Claus, Aster, Tooth Fairy and Sandman. Sandy is a nice chap. He wasn't too angry to me. He understood my point when the others refused to believe me… He is also the first one of the Guardians. The first one Manny ever chose. I was the third one but I have existed ever since the ABC books started to write. I'm even older than North!" The bird laughed merrily.

"But _what_ the Guardians are?" Kia asked again.

"They guard the children around the world. But if children stop believing in them, they start to weaken and finally disappear. I might be a coward because I refused to join in the case children stop believing in me. But it has been always like that. I do my job. I even deliver candy to those kids who don't believe in me." Now the Rooster seemed slightly sad as he looked towards giant bookshelves that surrounded the sitting room. "I have every single ABC book that has ever been written. Every single one. And I know every single language that has ever gotten one…"

"You okay, mr. Rooster?" Mari asked.

"Yes, the memories just got me for a moment. You had one more question, didn't you? It was about how you can see me. Well, I'm aware about your situation so I can offer you two explanations. One: you have passed the test or… Two: Manny allows you to see me."

"Wow, he _allows_ us to see something…" Kia mumbled sarcastically.

"I came to you two to offer my help. You will need it. For example your Key, miss Lockster…" Kia's head perked up. "You haven't found all the abilities of it. It's not just a sword. And even in the sword form… you can't use it properly." The Rooster shook his head and turned then towards Mari. "And you miss Newboom. You have done great job this far but there is always some tweaking needed." Mari nodded.

"We accept your offer, right?" Kia glanced Mari for confirmation. The tall girl nodded while watching curiously the slim paintings which were placed on narrow empty spots between the shelves of the ABC books of the world.

"Who has done those?" She asked, changing the subject.

* * *

The 16th December

Laura: -Whoa, that sounds pretty amazing. I'm so envious of you two.  
Kia: -Yeah, it was pretty amazing. Rusty said he was sorry he couldn't fetch you two too but according to him the distance is too long and America isn't really his territory…  
Mari: -He also said you have done good job on your own in discovering your abilities… He'd love to help you but… Well, Kia explained it already.  
Axel: -Laura, you haven't talked with Jack about this yet, have you?  
Laura: -No, I guess he knows something's going on but he lets it be until I tell him myself.  
Kia: -How understanding boyfriend you have, Laurie… I also want one.  
Laura: -He's not my boyfriend! We are not dating!  
Axel: -Of course not…  
Mari: -Whatever you say…  
Laura: -Now, would we please stay in the topic? What is Rusty teaching to you?  
Kia: -Well, I have improved my running and jumping skills. I have also learnt how to use my sword properly, not to mention trying to find out the other shapes of my sword.  
Mari: -I have managed to develop my paint brush to next… stage/level I guess.  
Kia: -It's now over two meters high!  
Mari: -In that form I can make larger amounts of color with the same effort I did smaller ones. And I have also learnt to make solid shapes instead of mere outlines. It's really hard though.  
Laura: -That's great! I wish he could teach me too.  
Axel: -But it's quite unbelievable how you have improved in such a short time.  
Mari: -According to Rusty it's because we already have everything we need but hadn't known how to use them.  
Laura: -Are you sure he's a good guy?  
Kia: -We were skeptical first, but all he does is to give tips and we do the rest of the work.  
Mari: -Except when are the fighting lessons. Then he's our opponent and sometimes puts us to fight each other.  
Kia: -Besides, MiM sent us a really short message and we can trust Rusty.  
Mari: -Really short indeed, barely a whole sentence…

* * *

Then dawned the eighteenth of December. Kia and Mari were having a girls' night. Although it wasn't just having fun. They were also keeping an eye on what was going on in Europe, especially on the northern parts of the continent. That was done by painting a magical map on the floor of Mari's room.

"Hey, zoom that part a bit." Kia pointed the border of three countries: Norway, Sweden and Finland. Mari placed her fingers on the map and moved them like on a touch screen to zoom the map she had painted.

"What are those dark grey spots? I didn't paint anything like that…"

"Zoom even closer." The map was zoomed until they could see roads and houses clearly. "Those grey spots are moving!"

"We ought to find out what it is. I don't have a good feeling about those." Mari erased the map with a wave of her hand and got up to take her jacket.

"I agree. And if we do this quickly no one will notice we are gone." Kia agreed, reaching for her olive green jacket. She was zipping it up to her chin when she asked jokingly: "Race to there?"

"Why not? But let's go to outside first."

"On the roof preferably."

"Yes."

They exited the apartment quietly and went up on the roof. It was rather windy there.

"Great weather to fly!" Mari shouted over the wind with a smile and started to form a giant dark blue could for herself to fly on.

"Hah, I'm there before you anyways!" Kia smirked. She was rocking on her toes and then on her heels. Once when she was on her heels again, her smile widened and she tapped twice the roof on her both feet. A hole appeared right under her feet and she disappeared into it with a quick 'bye'.

"She's too confident about her abilities. What if Easter Bunny catches her? She is pretty fast though, I better hurry." Mari jumped on her cloud and soared on the night sky. She had chosen the color to fit the sky so she wouldn't be noticed.

* * *

They arrived to the place they had seen on the map at the same time. Kia scoffed and looked around.

"What the heck are those horses?"

"Something evil."

"Thanks for stating the obvious."

"You are welcome."

"That was sarcasm, Mari. Sarcasm."

"I know and I ignored it."

"Right…" Kia sighed. "What do you think? What are those horses? Something else than 'evil'?"

"Nightmares? They are pretty often referred as black horses. Or at least a black horse is a symbol of a nightmare."

"Something bad anyways."

"Didn't I just say that?"

"Let's just take them down. They are on the territory of the Protectors." Kia took her sword and started to run. This time it was Mari's turn to sigh. She lifted up her cloud and followed the other girl. She had already stricken the closest horse which had collapsed on a heap of black sand.

"Weak things these are. Going down on one strike!" Kia shouted to her friend.

"I can see it. Are you sure you don't need my help?" Mari smirked.

"Don't you dare leave me alone with these monsters! Their number is simply too big for me alone!"

"Fine!" Mari took her paint brush and directed her outline animals on the nightmares. They crumbled on heaps too or turned into colors and joined on the animals. Mari smiled widely at her success and painted two things. One was a miniature catapult and the other one…

"Is that a bomb?" Kia asked, stunned.

"Yep." The brunette placed the mass of colors on the catapult, aimed in the middle of the nightmares and…

_Fiiii_

_Thump_

_Boom_

Fifty nightmares were down. Kia squealed in delight and gave a hug to Mari who was sweating now.

"I can't do that again anytime soon…" She mumbled.

"Who was that?" A voice asked. The wielder of the Key of Sword stopped congratulating the Protector of Imagination. They both shivered at the freezing tone in that voice but they weren't scared. They had no reason to. Almost all the horses were down now. What could that voice possibly do to them?

"Who are you?" The voice asked again. This time the two protectors also saw who that voice belonged to. It was a really tall humanlike creature, clad in black. It had yellow eyes, greyish skin, black hair and even had his fingernails painted in black.

"Wouldn't it be more polite to introduce yourself first, creepy face?" Kia challenged.

"Ah, yes. Forgive my manners. My name is Pitch Black." The creature told them. His polite voice was in a way even creepier than the angry and demanding one he had used a minute before.

"And would you also clarify what are you?" Mari said indifferently.

"I'm the boogeyman. The King of Nightmares."

"Boggart under the bed? Are we supposed to be scared of you?" Kia arched her eye brows. "You know that 'boogey' part in your title sound plain ridiculous. Almost like 'bogey'." She added to herself.

"Shut up Kia. Let me handle this." Mari elbowed the shorter girl. "Anyways mr. Black, it seems we destroyed the majority of your nightmares. They seem pretty weak anyways. Would you please clear them off from our territory?"

"I'm afraid not. And yes, you should be scared of me." Pitch said to Kia whose expression didn't change.

"Then we just have to chase you away." Mari sighed. Kia's sword turned into a golden spear: she was ready to continue fighting. Pitch noticed the change of the weapon.

"And you didn't answer to me yet. Who are you? How come some mortals have such powers to fight my fearlings? Did Man in the Moon appoint you?"

"In a way yes. Did you have anything else?" A light blue butterfly appeared on the tip of the paint brush and pierced the nearest horse.

"No… I'm afraid I have to retreat now." And with a twirl of black sand Pitch and the rest of the horses were gone.

"Bloody coward." Kia spat on the ground.

"Or then it was a smart move. He had no chances to us right now but we can be sure he will come back."

"And then he'll be much stronger. We have to warn Laura and Axel." The girl shrank her spear into the key form and sighed.

"Yes, but let's leave it tomorrow. They are going to sleep now I guess." Mari hid a yawn behind her palm. "Wanna stay over?"

"Why not." Kia shrugged and jumped on the cloud Mari had created again. She was simply too tired to run. "You know… if Rusty hadn't trained us we wouldn't have noticed that."

"Do you think the Guardians noticed the creepy face here?"

"I doubt it. Rusty told North has a giant globe in his HQ but from the point he usually watches it, it's almost impossible to notice the northern parts of Europe."

"Maybe he thinks that since we are so _close_ to North Pole Pitch won't attack here – like a blind spot. Or then the time of peace has been too long…"

"You know, I think that wasn't even an actual attack. Creepy face just wanted to test his nightmares and see if anyone will react. He obviously hoped the Guardians to react. Besides it's new moon now. MiM couldn't have done anything."

"It's possible."

* * *

Christmas came soon after that. And the Guardians didn't notice a thing. Maybe North had just been too busy in preparing the Christmas and hadn't stared the Globe as much as usually. But Laura got really worried about the incident. So worried, that even Jack noticed it when the girl's parent didn't. The winter spirit tried to make the girl tell him about it this time but she just shook her head sadly and said if something else happened she'd surely tell him. So the Christmas came and went past, and soon it was the New Year's Eve. Laura and Axel had discovered a new form of entertainment. With the help of Jack Frost of course. That entertainment needed them to have ice skates on and skate downhill the ice slide Jack created for them. Laura proved herself already during the first tests to be better than her brother but it didn't bother them at all. Anything could happen during those races.

Now they had come home from one of those races, cheeks flushed and goofy grins on their faces. Laura went immediately to shower while Axel talked with Jack. The Key wielder's test had been passed a bit after Christmas but he hadn't told Laura yet. They both did know though that Mari had passed during their fight against the nightmare horses. Kia otherwise… she had been able to see during the fight but it had been only because MiM had been weaker at the moment.

"When have you thought about telling her?" The boy asked the spirit. Jack looked at him with a confused face.

"Tell what?"

"That you like her back. You do know she loves you very much."

"I… It's not that easy." Jack looked outside of the window, his cheeks catching a slight dinge of pink.

"Yes, it's not supposed to be. I think she might even know about your feelings but hadn't said anything. She has learnt to read you so well."

"But then why I should-?" Jack tried to squirm himself out of the conversation but Axel cut him off.

"Because she wants to hear it. Women are like that I suppose. A good feeling is not enough, they want that someone in their heart to show they do care or something. Don't ask me anything else; I'm not any kind of expert in these things… But I do know my sister. She wants to know for sure what you think of her."

"And how I'm supposed to do that?"

"Jack, you are over three hundred years old! You have seen several romantical scenes in your life."

"Actually I have always flown away from them or messed up with them." The Spirit of Winter admitted ashamedly.

"Take her to the roof at least for the countdown of new year. You both love to be here. And then just… give the lead to your feelings, but gently. Girls don't like anything rash or rough. At least Laura doesn't."

"Fine. I'll do it then…" Jack sighed and flew from that window to the window of Laura's room. He sat down and checked the time of the wall clock. It was 10:47pm.

* * *

When it was 11:36pm, Laura finally came back to her room. From her face Jack could see she had just argued with her mother. Once again.

"Hi, Jack. Sorry it took some time." She sat on her bed with a huff.

"_Some time? You were there almost an hour."_

"Well, I was a while on a shower. Then I ate a light evening snack and after that mother came to talk about something I don't remember anymore." The girl shrugged.

"_Want to come on the roof?"_

"Definitely." Laura sat up and took the boy's invisible hand. Soon she was already up there, sitting on the snowy roof. The usual sight of dreamsand wasn't there this time though. Maybe Sandman procrastinated a bit because the children wanted to stay up when the New Year started. Instead there were a lot of fireworks. They were far away though so the noise wasn't too loud. Jack wrapped his left arm around Laura's waist and pulled her closer. The girl smiled but didn't say anything. She just leaned her head against the boy's shoulder.

11:58pm. They were still sitting like that. Laura shifted a bit. Her butt was pretty cold for sitting in the snow. Jack noticed her un-comfortableness and removed his arm. The girl looked straight at him and asked: "What now Jack? Is everything alright?"

The Winter Spirit was about to answer when the clock of the town hall started to chime. It chimed twelve times and some more fireworks sprouted on the dark sky. Laura hugged Jack tightly.

"Happy New Year!"

He waited until Laura was letting go of him and touched her cheek gently. The girl blinked. She could feel the invisible boy's cold breath on her face: they were really close to each other. She also guessed what would happen now so she closed her eyes. Carefully and gently, Jack closed the gap between their lips and pressed her tighter against him. He loved the girl. He truly loved her and he had never before felt anything like the joy he now felt. Laura seemed to agree with him from the way she responded to the kiss. She was also gentle but there was also something that told Jack Frost he should have made his move earlier.

They broke apart eventually. Laura was smiling and wiping tears from her right eye.

"I'm so happy. And you know what? This is also the worst cliché ever." She had laughter in her voice. "Why? Because I can see you now. I can finally see you now."

Jack's jaw dropped open: "Really? You can see me? And hear me?"

"Yes, yes I can. You can't even imagine how happy I am."

Jack jumped on his feet by excitement and offered his hand to Laura: "If it's anything like the happiness I feel right now, then I know exactly how you feel." He smiled his eyes full of joy, laughter and love. Laura got on her feet and hugged him again. The words weren't enough to express her so she kissed the boy.

"I love you, Jack Frost." She whispered as they parted and leaned her head against Jack's shoulder again.

"I love you too, Laura." The Spirit of Winter whispered back with a smile.

* * *

**A/N: And enter Pitch. And finally Laura can see Jack. And finally they kissed. Awwweee! Yes, I introduced Mr. Rooster now. He is quite funny what do you think. No wonder Bunny is ticked off by that blizzard Jack made back then...**

**In the next chapter I will finally get into the movie. The lines might not be exactly the same ones but I try my best. I also try my best to keep the plot as canon as possible. Wish me some luck. :)**

**Bye until we see again!**

**Please review by the way!**

**;)**


	6. A new adventure begins

_Sorry, no song this time…_

* * *

We were dating. Jack Frost and I. Yes, _the_ Jack Frost! Well, we didn't go on dates like normal couples did but we spent time together and had fun. Many times Axel was also with us but it didn't matter. We could see Jack now and have fun like real friends, like normal people… if you didn't count Jack's abilities to freeze everything and bring cold air. Or when he flew along the wind…  
After couple of weeks we heard the Kia had also passed her test about the time of her birthday. She was rather miffed after hearing that she'd been the last one. At that time Axel and I decided to tell Jack about our Keys and the abilities we had gotten along them. We didn't tell about the Protectors and the Guardians though. He took it pretty well. Surprisingly well actually. Maybe being a spirit for three hundred years had made him less surprised about everything… After all he was also pretty much supernatural being.  
We hadn't heard anything from Creepy face since December. That worried me a bit. It worried all Protectors. What was he up to? And when would he strike again?  
It was the Saturday before Easter Sunday when it started. The replay of the December eighteenth in much larger scale. Jack had been having fun in Moscow and I... spending time with the kids next door.

* * *

Laura smiled at the bright and sunny weather. It was a perfect day for snowball fights; ice slide races etc. but only after Jack had come back. It was much funnier when he was also in the game and adding fuel in it. The girl took her jacket and went downstairs to take her shoes. Axel was still in his room, editing videos, and their parents were at the hospital to check that everything was fine with the baby. The labor was due to come at any moment now.

Outside Laura spotted Jamie immediately. The boy was reading some book called _They're Out There – Mysteries, Mythical Creatures, and Unexplained Phenomena_ and seemed really engaged by it. The twins Claude and Caleb were right behind him. A wind blew the book out of the ten-year-old boy's hands and Laura spotted Jack trying the cover of the book that was now on the ground. A smile crept on her face and she strode closer.

"Bigfoot's DNA has been found in Michigan. That's real close. Let's go!" The boy told his friends and took his sleight. Laura laughed at his enthousiastim.

"Hi, Laura! How are you?" Jamie greeted her.

"Fine thanks. How about you? Going on a Bigfoot hunt?"

"Yes, I am. Wanna come too?"

"No, thanks…"

"C'mon Jamie, You don't seriously believe in Bigfoot?" Claude told the brunette.

"And Easter Bunny?" Caleb continued.

"Easter Bunny is real!" Jamie retorted.

"Oh, the Easter Bunny is real, all right. Real annoying, real grumpy and _really _full of himself." Jack said from his spot on the wooden fence. Laura leaned against the fence and smiled to him.

"Hi… How's Russia?" She said quietly.

"Cold, like it's supposed to be." The spirit smirked and gave a quick peck on her cheek. The girl just continued smiling and turned her attention Jamie's little sister who was jumping the stairs down.

"Bunny bunny, hop hop." She giggled until the Bennet family's dog Abby knocked her over. Laura took a step forward and caught the toddler.

"Upsie daisie." The teen lifted the little one on her hip. "Hi, sweetie."

"Lauwa! Bunny bunny, hop-hop-hop!" Sophie giggled and jumped happily on the older girl's lap.

"Yes, Easter Bunny is coming tomorrow." Laura placed the girl gently back on the ground and greeted Mrs. Bennet who had come outside to remind Jamie to put a hat on or 'Jack Frost would nip his nose'.

"Nah, he wouldn't do that." Laura stated confidently and was about to continue when Jamie asked: "Who's Jack Frost?"

"No one, darling. It's just an expression." Mrs. Bennet laughed and the kids left the yard. Jack looked at Laura's face quizzically. The girl seemed sad about something.

"Laura? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just… You remember year ago in November when I asked for snow? Right after that I told Jamie about you. He didn't believe me back then and now he's acting like he'd never heard of you." The girl mumbled to her scarf and stuffed her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket.

"Kids have a short attention span. Don't worry about it too much, okay? I'm used to it." Jack reassured his girlfriend and created a snowball on his hand. He blew to it to make it icy and smirked. "'Who's Jack Frost?' Hah!" He threw the ball at Jamie. _"That was for upsetting Laura…"_

"Who threw that?" The boy asked and turned around. He saw only Laura standing there and she had her hands in her pockets. "Was it you Laura?"

"Nope, it was Jack Frost." The girl smirked and crouched down. "But I'm going to continue what he started." In a flash she made a snowball and threw it at Pippa who was right on the other side of the fence.

"Jamie Bennet, you are dead." The young girl said. Soon there was a proper snowball fight going on. Jack ran around, creating ammo and throwing some snowballs. In other words he was doing the same things than on the previous times. Suddenly Pippa threw one ball on an older girl. Her name was Cupcake. Well, Laura wasn't sure was it really her name but that was the name that girl was called.

"I threw Cupcake." The polka haired girl whispered, terrified.

"You threw Cupcake?" Claude… or Caleb asked.

"She threw Cupcake." The boy with glasses continued the message chain. Meanwhile the said girl was watching them angrily and ready to smash a head of a snowman on Jamie who was lying on his back right in front of her.

"Jack… This was your fault. You were the one who threw that one. You better fix this somehow." Laura mumbled.

"Tsk… Let's have some fun." The snow spirit grinned and a snowflake touched gently Cupcake's nose. The girl laughed merrily and put the snowy head aside. The fight resumed until Jack suddenly made ice road for Jamie.

"Whoa, it's slippery here." He laughed as the kid fell on his sledge and started to slide downhill.

"Jamie!" Laura exclaimed.

"He'll be fine!" Jack shouted back.

"I'm sure he will." The girl ran and jumped on the ice slide. She bended on her knees and regained her balance as she started to slide after the boy. She could hear the other children shouted her name but she didn't back off.

"This is some much easier with skates…" Laura only mumbled and kicked as fast as she could to reach the boy's sledge which wasn't too far away or going too fast yet. In ten second she reached it and grabbed the rear of the sledge. "Hi, Jamie!"

"La-Laura?!" The boy gasped, glancing behind him but snapping his head then forward. Laura could see Jack sliding there and making the road.

"We are going to the town… Dear me…" The girl mumbled and kicked more speed for the sledge. It had slowed down a bit after she had taken a hold on it. They dodged cars, pedestrians, heard some lady saying 'Are those Jamie Bennet and Laura Sommers?' The girl laughed at the astonished tone in the woman's voice.

"Truck!" Jamie screamed. Laura ducked just in time. The lady had distracted her…

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The teen's eyes widened. "Jack, you better-." She didn't manage to finish her sentence when the Spirit of Winter made the slide rise skywards. The two flew in the air for a moment before landing on a snow right in front of the statue of Thaddeus Burgess. Jamie sat up slowly, still, stunned from the ride. Laura in the other hand groaned loudly as she sat up.

"Jamie, Laura, are you alright?" The kids were running to them. Jamie started to laugh.

"It was awesome! Did you see how I flew? Let's do it again, Laura-!"

"Jamie, look out-!" Laura tried too late. A sofa glided right at them. "Ouch my jaw…" Was heard from her while Jamie raised his hand in the air triumphantly, a tooth firmly between his fingers.

"A tooth got loose." He grinned.

"Cool, you'll get cash."

"Tooth Fairy cash."

"Lucky you." His friends told the boy. The ice ride and Laura was forgotten in a second. The girl sighed. She could see what was coming next.

"Tooth Fairy? Hey! How about the fun we just had? It wasn't Tooth Fairy's doings!" Jack Frost was shouting after them. He even blew cold air towards them but just made the kids hurry inside even faster. Huffing he sat next to Laura who had already turned herself invisible.

"You okay Jack?" She asked quietly and curled up, her knees on her chin.

"Just fine…" The boy answered and wrapped one arm around her shoulders. "The kids really have a short attention span…"

"Funny how they managed to forgot me too." Laura murmured. "I hadn't even turned invisible yet."

"Yeah… But you shouldn't worry about it too much. Heck, you get even more depressed than me. I'm the one here who's invisible." Jack stood up and pulled the girl on her feet. "C'mon, I'll take you home."

"Thanks." Laura hugged the boy and he took a hold on her waist. They were lifted easily in the air.

* * *

It was almost night. Jack was sitting right outside the window of Jamie's room where Jamie and his sister Sophie were planning on seeing Tooth Fairy. In the house next to theirs Laura was painting the last eggs of the year's Easter Project. Soon she should go to hide them. But before that she could easily take a walk with Axel. There was time. She climbed on the roof in her winter clothes. Jack had just landed on it too. The sand streams were already filling the sky.

"Right in time Sandman." He smiled and made one stream sprout dolphins. Laura chuckled a bit and made him turn around. "Oh… Hi, Laura. I didn't notice you."

"It's alright. I was going on a walk now with Axel to check that everything is alright. Something's going on." She shrugged her arms crossed. Jack frowned.

"What makes you think so?"

"There were foxfires… I mean northern lights on the sky last night." The girl explained in serious tone. The Protectors had heard through Russell that it was the way North, the leader or the Guardians, called the Guardians to his base. And when it happened, something was going on.

"Okay…"

"If my assumption is right, the events of December 18th will happen again… Creepy Face has come back." Laura face twisted into a sarcastic smirk.

"Who's Creepy Face? And what happened in December 18th?"

"Oh, you'll find out eventually. Just watch your back." Laura replied vaguely and slipped back to her room. Jack sighed. He knew this was one of the moments the girl wasn't going to tell anything.

* * *

Laura and Axel were walking the empty and silent streets of Burgess. Jack was walking nearby, on phone wires though. Suddenly a shadow ran past him. All three of them noticed it. Laura grabbed her brother's shoulder. "No one can see us." They both were invisible now. "Ax, let's go."

They ran after the shadow and Jack toward a little alley. Jack turned on the left and just barely dodged a flying object. It turned out to be a boomerang, Easter Bunny's boomerang to be exact. And the owner of the boomerang stood right behind the snow spirit, leaning casually on the wall. Laura dragged Axel behind the opposite corner. The boy was filming and the ice skates, which were hung from their laces around Laura's neck, were stabbing his back annoyingly. But he didn't say anything. He didn't even question why she had taken them with her.

"Hello." Jack spun around to see the pooka. The winter spirit watched at him warily but smirked after seeing he hadn't noticed the kids.

"Been a long time. Blizzard of '68 I believe? Easter Sunday, wasn't it?" The Rabbit stated.

"So, the short meeting of last year isn't even worth of mentioning." Laura grumbled and got an elbow on her stomach. Luckily her invisibility powers were also soundproof.

"You're not still made about that, are you?" Jack continued smiling.

"Maybe, but now I'm here in other businesses. Fellas." Two yetis appeared and stuffed Jack into a sack. Laura glared at them as they made a portal threw the sack into it.

"I'm going too. We need to know what's going on. You keep eyes on here." She whispered to Axel and run to the portal as the three 'kidnappers' were discussing. He was about to yell after the girl but realized just in time that he wasn't invisible anymore and hid properly behind that corner before any of the others spotted him. Laura laughed lightly and jumped into the portal.

* * *

She twirled and spun around in the portal before landing on wooden floor right next to the sack. The travel had needed all Laura's concentration so she'd stay like she was: invisible. It seemed she still was since the… characters/creatures around her didn't stare her like idiots. Carefully the girl got on her feet and dusted her jeans. Then she stepped aside so she wouldn't be stomped by the two yetis.

Jack peeked from the sack he had been stuffed in. The first thing he saw was the giant man dressed in red.

"Hello Jack. I hope the yetis treated you well." North offered a hand to the young spirit. Jack didn't take it and got on his own on his feet.

"Yeah, who wouldn't like to be stuffed into a sack and thrown into a portal?" He replied sarcastically.

"Good, you like it. It was my idea." The man said like he hadn't heard the sarcasm. Jack heard a snicker nearby and spotted Laura standing there, transparent. The girl lifted her forefinger in front of her mouth that was smirking. _"Don't tell about me."_

The boy nodded slightly and turned then towards the Guardians. "Would someone tell me now why I was dragged here? Am I on the Naughty list?"

"You hold the record!" North laughed. About that time Bunny came in, glaring Jack.

"Oh, there you are Jack. I've heard about your teeth." Tooth Fairy greeted the boy.

"My teeth?"

"His teeth?" Laura raised her eye brows and walked closer. She mumbled something even Jack couldn't hear but he guessed it wasn't anything pleasant. But then his attention was on the human-humming bird hybrid who was peering into his mouth.

"Just like I heard, white like freshly fallen snow." The fairy smiled. "Girls, pul yourselves together. Let's not disgrace the uniform."

"You already did… ten years ago…" Laura glared at her. She remember far too clearly the disappointment she had gotten when Tooth Fairy had taken two whole days until the girl's tooth was fetched. She still didn't know why.

"I have to say it's pretty surprising to see you all here so what an earth is going on?"

Sandman raised his hand and started to explain by forming pictures above his head faster and faster.

"Thanks, but that isn't really helping."

"What's going on you asked Jack. You have been chosen a Guardian." North spread his arms on the sides and a parade like thing started. Laura was as astonished as Jack and tried her best to stay out of way. The parade was massive, slightly scary and plain ridiculous at the same time. She started to laugh hysterically and her laughter just increased when Jack blew the elves aside and stopped the music.

"Oh, Santa doesn't know Jack at all." She managed to choke out as the 'music!', 'no music!' happening occurred. She sat on the floor next to Sandman and yawned. Laura barely listened to Jack's conversation with North but did notice when the boy managed to piss off the Easter Bunny. She got on her feet and pushed the two apart. "Don't fight boys. There are much more important things to do." She said quietly.

That made everyone stare the place she was standing. Slowly she walked aside but their eyes didn't follow her and she could sigh in relief.

"What that was?" Tooth asked.

"What was what?" Jack asked back. To him nothing had happened since he had seen Laura all the time and heard her comments. To the Guardians Jack and Bunny had disappeared for a second and appeared immediately two meters apart from each other. To Easter Bunny in the other hand… he had seen Laura push him and Jack apart, telling them to stop, and then vanish on the moment she didn't touch them anymore.

"_Who_ was that?" The pooka asked.

"Who was who?" The other Guardians asked. Jack at once it immediately as he remembered everything Laura had told about her invisibility powers. She could turn other things also invisible but only as long as she touched them. And the people she touched and were turned invisible could see her too.

"Oh…"

"Oops…" Laura mumbled and gave rather nervous smile to the boy. "Let's say it was a ghost."

"Maybe it was a ghost of some kind." The young spirit suggested. Bunny frowned at him but didn't say anything. There were indeed some much important things to think about. Tooth and North let the matter drop but Sandy brought his tiny hand to his chin and started to think hard. Laura sighed. That had been a close call.

* * *

North took Jack for a walk around the work shop and Laura followed them. She absorbed all possible information and watched in awe the sights she saw corner after corner.

"I've tried to bust in here for ages." The winter spirit smiled.

"Really?"

"Don't worry. The yeti's always caught me. Hello, Phil."

"No wonder you hold the record on the Naughty list." Laura mused.

"I don't like them, paint them red." North said to one yeti that had been painting robots light blue. The yeti shouted something on its own language and Laura looked at the robots next to him. _"That must be at least three hundred and fifty… Where did I get that number?!"_

She was so much deep in her thoughts she didn't even notice north taking Jack into his office and closing the door behind. She woke up from her trance as she walked right at it. For a moment she turned visible again but fortunately no one was there to see.

"Fine. I'm going back then." She turned her back to the door. "Snow Gate, open."

* * *

She arrived to the place the rest of the Guardians were, discussing about something. They didn't even notice the snowflake shaped flash she caused by her arrival. Suddenly Tooth perked up and looked around franctically.

"Tooth? What now? What is it?" Bunny asked.

"Tooth Palace. It's under attack." The fairy whispered in horror. She was absolutely terrified. "I have to go." And then she was gone.

"Something tells me that we are going too…" Laura mused and took her skates off. "Ouch… that hurt…" She sat down, rubbing her neck a bit, and started to change her boots to skates. That 'something' also told her she'd better use them instead of boots. "Maybe I should send these to home. Snow Gate…" She looked around that neither one of the remaining Guardians were watching. "…Open."

When the shoes were gone she stood up. Bunny was running towards North's office and Sandman on his way to downstairs. "Wind… I need a bit help." A gust of wind picked her up gently and took her to some kind of hall. North was already there with Jack. _"How these guys are so fast?"_

Jack glanced at Laura's skates and gave her then a look that said quite clearly: 'what do you think you are doing?'

"I'm coming with you. Don't even think of stopping me. And these… are for ice slide." She had noticed a huge ice slide right in front of the sleigh.

"No, you are definitely not…"

"Jack, jump in." North told the boy, interrupting him. Jack climbed in and gave the last glance to the girl who waved to him.

"You too Bunny." The giant of a man told the pooka who was still standing on the… platform.

"I think my tunnels might be faster, mate. And... um, safer."

"Pah! It's fun!" North grabbed Bunny from the neck and placed him next to sandman who was already sitting there and obviously enjoying himself. "Buckle up."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where are the bloody seat belts?"

"It's just an expression!"

* * *

And they were off. Laura followed shortly after them. The ice tunnel was huge, at least two and half meters high! She was reaching the sleigh pretty fast but right before that…

"Whoa! Upside down!" She squealed in delight and grabbed the rear of the sleigh just like she had earlier on the day grabbed Jamie's sledge. "Ah, the end of the tunnel… Three, two, one… And jump!" She jumped right after the sleigh had reached the end of the ice slide. Gently, she landed on the runner on the left. She could hear Bunny's desperation and Jack's enthusiasm, and laughed happily as she let go of her invisibleness. Through the wind they wouldn't be able to hear her. Jack was talking to Bunny and hopping to stand on the rear of the sleigh.

"Bunny, check out this v-!" He managed to shout before a surprised yelp as he staggered backwards dangerously but landed safely on the right runner. Bunny hurried to see if he was alright and saw him absolutely alright. Laura turned herself invisible just in time.

"Aww, I didn't know you cared."

"Okay, I know a short cut!" North told the travelers suddenly, taking the snow globe from his pocket.

"Why didn't they use it back in the North Pole?" Laura muttered right before they went through the portal. But when they came through it they could see immediately that something was wrong.

"Nightmares." Laura hissed. She had seen a picture about them. Mari had drawn and sent it via e-mail about a day after the incident in December. "Creepy Face is behind this."

"Creepy… Right!" Jack nodded and looked at the horses made of black sand. "They are taking the mini fairies!" He shouted then, jumping up and catching one of the fairies before it was 'eaten' by a nightmare. Laura also jumped up, took her Key, and turning it into a staff with a giant snowflake on the top of it, she directed ice cold wind towards one of the horses. The horse slowed down a bit and when it was close enough, she slashed her staff through it. Nothing came out but the horse crumbled soon after the staff was out of it.

"No fairies…" She mumbled and landed on the sleigh, disappointed on herself. Jack had taken the reins while North fought the nightmares with two swords. Laura climbed on the front and helped Jack steer the sleigh. "Look out!" They dodged the pillars and with a long slide they finally landed. "Who has designed this place? They obviously didn't think about anyone arriving on a sleigh in a middle of a battle when a pair of incompetent kids are steering it." The girl murmured and hopped off to take a look on the Palace.

Under the nearest arch way Tooth Fairy was on her knees and sobbing.

"What did they take?" North asked.

"They took my fairies! And the teeth! All of them! Everything is gone. Everything."

"Teeth?" Jack asked aloud. Laura smacked him behind his head.

"Dummy, there must be some reason she collects them. They were probably stolen from the same reason." She explained. "Oh, by the way… Take this." The girl gave the spirit a small transparent box full of bright blue sand. "That's Peace Dust. Mari gave me a couple of boxes of it. I… I'll explain later."

Something gave everyone a bad feeling suddenly. Shadows twirled around and materialized a top of the arch Tooth was sitting under. Laura looked at the creature while the Guardians prepared to a fight. Yep, that was Creepy Face.

"Pitch, what are you doing here?" North asked on almost challenging tone.

"I just want something you have. I want to be believed in. Maybe I'm tired of hiding under the beds" Pitch Black said and a nightmare horse appeared next to him. "What do you think old buddy? It took me years to master this: turning dreams into nightmares." He said to Sandman who didn't seem very pleased about that bit of information. Laura wasn't either but she understood now why Mari had sent her Peace Dust. The Dust could repel dreams and nightmares alike when given to a sleeping child. It formed one kind of shield on them. If a child didn't have any dreams, there weren't anything to turn into a nightmare.

"It seems you didn't send those brats here… I already miss them." Pitch continued and looked around him. Laura gritted her teeth. _"Don't you dare call Mari and Kia 'brats'…"_

"Who are you talking about, Pitch?" Bunny asked.

"December the eighteenth." Jack gasped aloud. Laura nodded to him.

"Oh, Jack Frost. Since when you have hung out with these people?"

"I'm just an outsider here."

"I see. Good to see a neutral party here but I'm going to ignore you now. You should've been used to it by now. You were correct though. December the 18th. No one was there to face me except those two girls… I heard Man in the Moon appointed them somehow. Those two mortals. Judging from your expressions he didn't bother to tell you."

"Since when MiM has told anything to anyone?" Laura grumbled.

"You are one of them too." Jack said quietly. It wasn't a question anymore.

"Yeah, I wasn't there but my friends were. Axel also belongs to our little… group. Nothing else right now."

"Right…"

Some kind of fight ceased between the Guardians and Pitch. Laura did her best to stay out of it while Jack fought on Guardians' side thanks to Pitch's taunts. The Nightmare King escaped soon, leaving a bad feeling to everyone. Jack asked Tooth why Pitch would want the children's teeth. The fairy explained to him how the teeth stored children's' most precious memories.

"Even your memories were here."

"My memories? What memories?"

"Memories about who you used to be. Before you became Jack Frost."

"But I wasn't anyone before I was Jack Frost."

"Jack, we were all someone before we were chosen. Even you. Don't you remember?"

"I… I don't… Do you mean by finding my memories I get to know who I am?"

"Yes."

"Brilliant! Let's find them then." Laura facepalmed. How someone could get distracted so easily? He was even worse than some kids…

"Jack, all teeth were taken. And…" Tooth stopped as the palace started to crumble and she dropped some feathers. "Oh no… It's starting. The children don't believe in me anymore."

"Then… we have to help you." North told the fairy. Laura blinked simultaneously with her. They collecting teeth? They all?

"If they succeed in that… I must congratulate them…" She mused and walked then to Jack. "You help them. I have to go back now. See you later."

"Okay. See you…"

"Good luck with your memories." The girl gave a kiss to the spirit and was gone then. The night was going to be long for both of them.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, the lines from the movie aren't perfect and not necessary in chronological order but I tried my best and the main points are there now. Phew!**

**Also, the school is starting tomorrow so I'm not able to write as much as before. I'm sorry about that. But at least I have a goal: I'm going to finish this fic before Easter! Wish me luck!**


	7. Easter endangered

_Pöydällä kyniä ja paperia, (Pens and paper on the table,)  
keskeneräisiä lauseita. (unfinished sentences.)  
En niitä koskaan valmiiksi saa. (I'll never get them done.)  
Ei ole mitään sanottavaa. __(There's nothing to say anymore.)_

_Silmät kiinni tyhjin ajatuksin. (With closed eyes and empty thoughts.)  
__Kaiken todellisen mitä tarkoitin. (Everything real what I meant.)  
En niitä koskaan valmiiksi saa. __(I'll never get them done.)  
Ei ole mitään sanottavaa. (There's nothing to say anymore.)_

_Hukuta mut unihiekkaan, (Drown me into dreamsand,)  
älä herätä koskaan. (never wake me up.)  
Anna mun vajota pohjaan, (Let me sink me on the bottom)  
Mariaanien hautaan. (of the Mariana Trench.)_

_Ja kun katson sua, (And when I look at you,)  
tunnen kuinka, (I feel how,)  
siinä vain jos silmäni suljen. __(right there if I only close my eyes.)  
Olisit siinä edes vähän aikaa. (Just be there even a little moment.)_

_Anna mun vajota pohjaan… (Let me sink on the bottom…)  
__Anna mun vajota pohjaan… (Let me sink on the bottom…)_

* * *

Laura appeared in the middle of her room, right next to her shoes. And on the moment her feet touched the floor, she collapsed on the floor. She hadn't even noticed how much the invisibleness tired her. Not to mention the ice skates she had on.

"Uff… I gotta find Axel…" She started to untie the shoelaces and grabbed her boots to put them on. Then she stood up and went around the house to find her brother. "Axel! Ax! Where are you? We have to hide those eggs now…" She trailed off when she noticed a piece of paper on the kitchen table.

_-Laura,  
I'm taking a walk. I'll be back in an hour.  
At the same time I'm checking the city.  
Tell me everything you found out when I come back.  
Oh, I guess you have to start hiding those eggs we made.  
I already took one basket.  
Have fun!  
Axel Ice_

"That son of a-… Okay, maybe not…" Laura turned to look at the baskets on the floor. Axel had taken one which had fifteen eggs. There were three more baskets left. "To work then." She took a look at the maps she had. The boy had taken one of them, the one with the area of Burgess's center. Laura decided to start from the suburban area and the neighborhood.

* * *

About an hour later the girl was back and taking the next basket when she realized that Axel hadn't come back.

"Where is that boy? I need to tell him what's going on. At least Kia and Mari know…" Laura sighed and put the basket back on the table. "I need help. Otherwise I won't get these done during this night. And that's not a good thing…" She went the stairs up and opened the window of her room. "I have only one choice then…" Laura climbed on the roof and, like on some other nights, jumped on the roof next to their house. "Jamie better help me…"

* * *

Inside of the boy's room Jack and Tooth had just gotten some company from the other Guardians when they heard a soft _thump_ above them.

"What was that?" Bunny asked as his ears perked up. He could hear more steps and then nothing. Instead the window opened and all five immortals looked at a girl who had a hold of the roof above her only with her left hand. In her right hand she had a snowball and she was keeping the window open.

"Yksi… kaksi… kolme… Hop!" She mumbled to herself and swung herself into the room. "Jamie… I need your help…" She walked past the spirits like she hadn't seen them and stopped by Jamie's head. The girl switched the snowball from hand to hand for a couple of times and then lifted her hands right above the sleeping kid's head and with a smirk on her face she smashed it. The cold snow fell on the boy's face, waking him up.

"Whoa!" Jamie bolted up, looked around furiously and spotted the girl then. "Laura, why did you wake me up?"

"Did you already forget that I promised to wake up before the Tooth Fairy would come?" Laura arched her eye brows and looked the boy seriously. "But…" She lifted the boy's pillow. "It seems I was late."

"As if anyone would…" Tooth started but noticed then Jamie taking his flash light.

"Did you hear that Laura?"

"Hear what?" The flash light was now on and Jamie was pointing it at each Guardian and saying their names as he did that. Laura looked at them too but masked her amazement very well. "Jamie, even if they are here would you please switch off that flash light and listen to me for a moment."

"You can't see them? They are right there."

"Jamie…" Laura sighed with a suffering expression on her face. "It's too complicated to explain right now and I don't have enough time. I'm here only to ask for your help. So would you please give me your full attention for five minutes?"

"How about…?" The boy's eyes flickered on the Guardians.

"They can stay and listen if they want to." The teen sat on the edge of the bed and took two Easter eggs from the pocket of her hoodie. "What is the difference between these two eggs?"

Jamie looked from one to another. They were both pink but the other one had only darker pink for its lace-like patterns. The other one had violet and blue flowers with light green leaves. "Umm… The one on the left is the style that appeared for the first time last year, I guess…" He glanced at Bunny who nodded.

"Correct. This one and the others of the same style are made by me and Axel. The others are the original ones made by Easter Bunny. Anyways, I have a bit of trouble of hiding these so I came here to ask for your help. Axel is… who knows where." The girl sighed.

"Why are you doing that then? Making those eggs."

"Well… We were… in a way… asked to help." Laura shrugged and stood up. "Are you coming or not?"

"I… er…" Jamie looked at the Guardians. Sandman gave him thumbs up. North shook his head; he thought it would be safer for the boy to stay home during the night. Bunny also shook his head but for different reason. He wanted to do his own job without any outside help. Rooster was already enough. Tooth only shrugged: she didn't want to take sides. "I guess I'll pass. What if my mum comes in and find out I'm gone?"

"Okay then… Maybe I'll survive… After all I have three hours until sunrise and thirty eggs left…" The girl mumbled to herself. "You can keep these." She placed the two example eggs on the boy's bedside table. At that moment the Bennets' greyhound Abby woke up and started to bark to Bunny's direction. A chaos ensued including Jack pressing the alarm clock, Bunny bouncing around the room, Sandman putting the other three Guardians to sleep, North collapsing on Jamie's bed and the boy himself flying through the air. In the middle of all that Jack had rescued Laura by pulling her aside with the hooked end of his staff.

"Thanks Jack…" The girl sat on the window bench and looked the sleeping group. Tooth, Bunny and Abby the Dog were sleeping on the floor, and North and Jamie on the boy's bed. "Hello, Sandy." She greeted the tiny and chubby man who stared at her. "Yes, I can see but I had to pretend I couldn't." She told him as he started to form pictures above his head. The Guardians, Laura herself, an eye, an eye with an 'X' on it… And then a question mark. "Ah, that's pretty interesting thing but like I said to Jamie I don't have much time. Jack, would you take me to my room?"

"Sure thing. Hey, did you see that?" Jack looked out of the window. A shadow had just run past. "Sandy, let's go! We can find Pitch!"

"Jack!"

"Ah, yes." The young spirit wrapped his arm around the girl and took her to her room. Sandman hovered nearby on a golden cloud.

"Jack, be careful okay? I have a bad feeling about this." Laura pleaded. The spirit of winter kneeled down on the window sill and kissed her gently.

"Don't worry. I will."

"And if you see Axel, tell him to come home."

"Sure. See you later." And the two were gone. Laura closed the window and went back to downstairs. Axel still hadn't come. Sighing she took the second last basket and left the house.

* * *

Axel walked around the town center. The basket had been emptied ages ago. He knew he should've gone back home but he didn't know if Laura was back yet and to speak the truth he wasn't really on the mood of delivering any other eggs to their hiding places. Soon he noticed something which took his thoughts out of the eggs. He put the basket on the back pack he had and changed the battery of his video camera. After that he started to run after creatures he had seen to run past him. The boy knew what they were and he was fully aware that he should be careful and ready to fight at any moment.

Axel ran through the alleys and streets as fast as he could but yet he could catch those nightmare horses. He started to tire a moment by moment because of the heavy clothes he had on. In ten minutes he found those horses though. They were standing still, like waiting for something or someone.

"Creepy Face… He's coming." The boy realized and waved his hand at the creatures. Ice pillars shot from the ground and surrounded them. A cage formed around them but they 'melted' into a mere black sand and tried to come between the bars. "No, no, no… You are not going to do that." He mumbled and moved his hand again. The bars started to widen and instead of cage there was an ice cube soon, the nightmares inside it. "And a finishing touch…" He lifted his fists on the level of his eyes and opened it, pointing the cube with all of his fingers. An army of icicles appeared inside the cube and stabbed the nightmares inside it from all directions. "Brilliant…" The boy smirked and turned away from the alley. He'd better go home now. Laura was probably worried to death. That was so if she knew about the nightmares in the town.

He had walked only one block from the place he had captured the horses when he saw some movements on the sky. Directing his camera towards it, he recognized Jack up there, fighting against Creepy Face. And with the help of Jack was someone else… Axel didn't recognize him at first but saw then the golden dreamsand.

"Sandman! Of course. How can I be so slow?!" He said aloud and glanced around to find a place he could go for safety. He didn't find any suitable one because he also wanted to be able to see around and film everything he saw. Huffing he looked up to the sky again. The rest of the Guardians had arrived now, all of them really sleepy but soon in the fight.

_Neigh, neigh…_

The nightmares were approaching Axel from behind. There had been more of them than he had believed. Without stopping his filming he shot icicles from the ground, giving them the same treatment than to the ones inside the ice cube. That was his specialty. But it didn't work on them. Well, at first it did but then the horses lost their forms, floated away and reformed right next to the icicles.

"Sh*t…" Axel mumbled and tried something else. Trapping them was out of the question. As a human he didn't have as much energy to large tricks like the Guardians and other immortals had. He could push them back though… Creating a large wall of ice and making it move away from him, Axel managed to make them retreat. The boy sighed in relief and looked back to the sky. Creepy Face was aiming something on Sandman's back. The boogeyman let go of it as Axel recognized it as an arrow made of black sand. "NO!"

"_SANDY!"_ Jack screamed far away. In terror the both boys followed the black sand swallow the tiny man. The golden dreamsand vanished as the dream maker disappeared out of sight. A herd of nightmare horses charged towards Jack and the spirit of winter took his anger and frustration and sadness out on them. A mixture of snow, ice, frost and cold air hit the nightmares, leaving Jack fall on North's sledge. The remaining four of the immortals left soon after Pitch fled.

* * *

Axel wasn't moving. He was shocked about everything he'd seen. He didn't quite understand it but he'd gotten the main point: The Guardians were now on a war against Creepy Face. A war which would affect all children around the world. Slowly the boy turned around to leave the city center and go home finally. But something was holding him on the spot. He couldn't identify what it was but on its own accord his right hand went into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a box of Peace Dust. The light blue sand-like thing was trashing against the walls of the box until he finally took off the lid. The sand slithered its way out immediately and zoomed towards a little forest the Guardians had been fighting above.

"Hey, wait!" The sand took a form of several butterflies and flew in front of him, sometimes one of them stopping and checking he was coming along. Axel did follow it. He didn't really have any other choices because of his own curiosity. He wanted to know what was going on and why Peace Dust was acting like that. Mari had warned them that she even wasn't sure about all the properties of the Dust so she couldn't help them if something happened. So, there he was following a flock of frosty blue sand butterflies in the middle of a snowy forest.

Suddenly the butterflies stopped and started to fly around themselves like in panic of looking for something. Axel also stopped and glanced his surroundings. Snow, snow, snow… and someone's presence. It was the same feeling he had gotten around Jack when he couldn't see the spirit yet. Laura had told him she had felt the same around Easter Bunny too. So that led only to a conclusion that someone like them was near. But who? Creepy Face? Most likely not, he didn't even know about the Protectors. Hopefully not much at least. One of the Guardians then? They all had left and Jack was with them.

"Wait… not _all_ of them…" Axel started to look even more closely the opening he was standing at the moment. Near the edge of it, right under some leafless and also snowless trees was a drift of snow that looked like someone had fallen into it and was now buried deep. The pre-teen run to it and kneeling down, he started to shove away the snow. He had dug at least a meter until he found a tiny hand. Carefully digging up the rest of the body, Axel was able to take a better look on the person he had found with the help of Peace Dust (which was now back in the box). Sandman's clothes were now dark grey. His hair was also grey and even his skin had gotten a heavy shade of it. Away was the golden yellow and happy appearance. Completely away…

Axel frowned. He wasn't exactly sure what he should do. But he shouldn't leave the tiny man there. Absolutely not. So the boy picked him up. Sandman was quite heavy but the boy didn't care.

"Heh… You fell down for twenty meters at least and got buried to snow. Not to mention this state of yours… Nightmares instead of happy dreams…" Axel shook his head and started to head back to the road, following his own tracks. Luckily it wasn't snowing so he found his way back easily.

* * *

The town was deathly quiet as he walked through it, towards the suburban area. When he reached the street their house was he could see Laura standing at the gate.

"Axel, where an earth have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I have been for the last hours? And I had to hide all those…" She started to rant with extreme irritation and anger in her voice but it died down as soon as she saw who the boy was carrying on his arms. "Sandy! What's happened to him?"

"You better watch this. I'm taking him up to my room." Axel just said and gave his video camera to the girl.

* * *

"So… Creepy Face is in the war with the Guardians. Jack is also with them. Sandman is injured…"

"They think he is dead, destroyed… something like that. Otherwise they wouldn't have left him behind."

"Yes, we two are the only ones to know about that."

"What do you think they are doing now?"

"I don't know…" Laura sighed and glanced Sandman's sleeping form on Axel's bed. They had used Peace Dust to chase away some of the black sand and the man had gotten better but now all they could do was waiting. And that waiting time they had used in telling each other everything they had found out and were now summarizing it. Sighing Laura stood up and walked to the door of the boy's room. "I'm going to contact Mari. Hopefully she can help us and substitute Sandy."

"Substitute? How?"

"She can't put anyone asleep but she can make sure the kids don't get nightmares." Laura explained, her hand on the door knob. "Besides she barely sleeps herself so she can easily handle at least one day. Hopefully this everything ends before a second one…"

* * *

Morning. Beautiful shiny morning filled with sorrow, anxiousness and depression. At least to kids, the Guardians, Laura and Axel. After only five hours of sleep, Laura had gone to the park nearby where she had hidden the eggs of the last basket. It was one of the places children always came to hunt them. She turned herself invisible and leaned against a pine tree to wait for them. Axel was at home, looking after Sandman.

A couple of hours passed until two kids came to the park to look for the eggs. The moment they stepped on the area, some black sand rose from the ground and surrounded the eggs Laura had used so much effort to do. Then the sand vanished as did the eggs, like they had also turned to sand. The girl just stared and noticed then that there weren't any other eggs either.

"What has happened to Bunny?" She breathed and watched helplessly as the kids looked for the eggs without any success. The kids were about to give up when Easter Bunny himself hopped behind the bushes and placed a couple of eggs on the ground. The kids didn't even notice them and with a great disappointment on their faces they gave up and walked away, through Bunny. Laura bit back her tears after seeing the hurt look on the Pooka's face. She had seen that look several times on Jack's face.

Speaking of Jack. The boy arrived a few moments after that, obviously scared and terrified about something. Laura didn't move nor made herself visible to the Spirit of Winter. That was a wise move. The Guardians chased the boy away very soon, assuming he had gone to help Pitch Black aka Creepy Face. They were wrong though. Laura knew Jack would never do anything like that. He loved kids and would do anything to help them, even if he was invisible to them. And she was terrified to know what Jack would have thought if he'd seen her there without doing anything.

* * *

The Guardians were still on the opening when a voice called Laura. Axel.

"Laura, where are you? Laura!" Yes, she had made herself invisible to _everyone_, including Axel, so she chose not to answer. The boy stepped on the area, looking around for her. "Laura, I know you are here."

"Fine." The girl huffed, canceling the 'spell' around her. The Guardians just stared at her, especially Bunny who recognized her both from the previous Easter and from the North Pole, pushing himself and Jack apart. She was also the one waking that Bennet boy up in the middle of the night when they'd been there. "What do you want?" She glared at her brother.

"I wanted to see if you were alright. Jack stopped by, asking where you were before disappearing." The boy shrugged.

"I'm just fine. The Easter project just failed properly here. Look." Laura took an egg from her pocket and placed it on the ground. It was red with white stripes and when the girl let go of it, it was gone with a blur of black sand.

"I see… Kia sent me a message by the way. Helsinki is doing fine but the rest of the Finland isn't. And Rooster's place was attacked too."

"What?!" The girl exclaimed. She wasn't the only one. Bunny's jaw also dropped but the two teens ignored it. They had decided to do so because they didn't know what the Guardians knew about the Protectors. "If Rusty's place got… Did you say 'too'?"

"I did. According to Rusty, Easter Bunny's place was attacked about two hours before you left the house."

Laura fell silent. She didn't know what to say. Just leaned heavily against the tree and slid down to sit on the ground. Scooping a handful of snow in front of her she started to make a snowball while thinking hard their next move. The minutes passed in silence. No one moved as the snowball became rounder and smoother and also harder.

"Laura?"

"Say… How long time you can leave our patient?" Laura asked, her eyes staring in front of her without seeing anything.

"A few hours I guess. He is just sleeping at the moment." Axel answered, understanding not to bring up Sandman by name.

"Well, you remember what I told you?"

"Yes."

"And what you saw last night?"

"Yes."

"And you understand what has just happened?"

"Yes…"

"Do you remember the place we found last summer?"

"I… Laura, you are crazy!"

"I'm crazy only if I go on my own." The girl stated, standing up the finished snowball in her hand. She looked around to find a place to throw it at.

"…Laura, you are not going to do that."

"Why not?" Laura dropped the ball on the ground and walked to Axel. The boy didn't have any time to react when she tripped him and sat on his chest. He could see the wicked grin on her face as she pulled the too familiar hair dye spray bottle from her pocket. Knowing what would come now he covered his face and his sister started to color his hair into frosty mixture of silver and white. "Ta-da! Prefect!"

The weight on Axel's chest disappeared and he was able to get on his feet. He groaned loudly before smirking to himself and tackling the other on the ground. "Fine, I'll come with you but only with one provision. You let me give the same treatment on your hair as you did to mine." Grumbling, Laura gave the bottle to the boy and waited until it was over. They both got up then. Axel put the empty bottle in his back pack and took out his video camera. "I'm telling you Laura, this is not safe."

"Don't worry! If something happens I'll make sure you'll get to safety. That's my duty as a big sister."

"I would say that I'm supposed to protect you as a man but I'll leave that to your boyfriend."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get going now." Laura dragged the boy into the woods, leaving four confused immortals, who hadn't dared to say a word, behind.

"Where are they going?" Tooth asked aloud as the two teens disappeared out of sight.

"I don't care about that but how that sheila is able to turn invisible. I saw her at the Pole earlier." Bunny said but no answered because at that moment he shrank smaller. "Oh no…"

The two Protectors were forgotten.

* * *

Laura and Axel stood by the wreck of a bed that had a hole right under it. There was no bottom to be seen, only darkness.

"I'll go first." Laura stated, sitting down and putting her legs down to it. Axel eyed her warily.

"Are you sure?"

"Dead sure. See you soon!" And she slipped out of sight. Axel waited. And waited. For several minutes he couldn't hear anything so he followed his sister. There wasn't anything else to do if he wanted to know what had happened to her.

* * *

**A/N: Finally! Finally I finished this chapter! I'm so happy. *tears* And a couple of things now.**

**1. Axel: He doesn't have Jack's powers just able to create ice and only ice. MiM made indeed the Protectors' powers based on the Guardians' but mostly the ideas for each are from the Keys they have.**

**2. Mari: I know I said she wouldn't take Sandy's place and I'm still staying in my word. She won't take it just substitute him.**

**3. Guardians: They'll find out eventually more about Protectors but not just yet. They have other things to worry about.**

**4. Thank you: thank you for a guest and fluddershy for reviews. I really appreciate that.**

**And now is your turn**

**to follow the lead of those few**

**who have reviewed.**

**I'd be greatly thankful for that.**

**See you again some day!**

**:)**


	8. Risky trip to the nest of nightmares

_Ei, en odota yllätystä, (No, I don't wait a surprise,)  
en pidätä hengitystä. (I don't hold my breath.)  
Mä haluan jättää sen kaiken taakse. __(I want to leave that all behind.)  
Tää mun pakoni loppuun juostu on. (This, my escape, has come to the end.)_

_En mä rohkea oo, (I'm not brave,)  
enkä kuolematon, (nor immortal.)  
Mä tiedän vain sen minkä sydän on tiennyt kauan: (I only know what my heart has known long: )  
tää mun pakoni loppuun juostu on. __(This, my escape, has come to the end.)_

* * *

Falling… Falling deeper. Falling slower… Falling nonetheless… Laura didn't know how long time she had fallen or how deep she was currently. It was so dark around and she couldn't feel any wind around. But she did twirl around. Sometimes she found herself face down, sometimes face up. Once she was upside down and then in a standing position. After a time which felt like forever, Laura's feet met the ground, stony floor, and she could see she had arrived to a big cave-like space.

"This place is huge!" The girl whispered her eyes like a pair of saucers.

"You said it. It seems we were right about this place being Creepy Face's base. Look at those!" Axel landed right next to her and pointed giant cages hanging from the roof. "Didn't you say that the tiny fairies look like humming birds?"

"I did…" Laura stared to cages for a moment but turned her gaze away then. Something else caught her attention immediately though. "Ax, come." She grabbed her brother's free wrist(right one since he was once again filming everything he saw with the camera he had in the left one hand) and started to drag him towards the place that had caught her attention.

"Hey, Laura, calm down. What are you…?" Axel stopped as he saw the things on the ground Laura had led him to. There were three giant heaps of golden tube-shaped boxes. "Whoa, what are those?"

"They are Teeth containers I think. Creepy Face emptied Tooth Palace. Yes, look at this. Every box has a different name and face painted on them." Laura lifted up a couple of the golden items and showed them to the boy. "What do you think… Could we find ours?" She mused thoughtfully and dropped the containers back on the heap.

"Possible but not likely. There are quita many of them here."

"And I bet they are not divided into continents like they originally were…" Laura strode in the middle of the heaps and crouched down. "Why to start from the top when there is more to choose in the bottom?" She smirked to herself and started to go through the boxes.

* * *

It took about twelve minutes according to Axel's wrist watch until they found Finland's section. Even though the boxes weren't divided by their continents anymore, the main lines were still seen. It was also a fact that they both had lost all their baby teeth before moving so their teeth would still be in Europe and not in Northern America.

"Ax…when do you think the Creepy Face will be back?" Laura asked as she picked up once again another golden container. She froze as she saw the picture and name on it but didn't inform the boy at all about her finding.

"At any moment is my guess." Axel replied, his back turned towards Laura. The girl slipped silently the tube into the boy's back pack.

"I think we ought to go now. I wouldn't like to be caught here."

"Then why are you here in the first place?" A cold voice asked somewhere from the shadows above the two teens. Laura recognized that voice from Tooth Palace's destruction. Axel recognized it from the battle he had seen on the previous night. They turned simultaneously towards the source of the voice.

"Poking around?" Laura smirked as she saw the Boogeyman standing on a landing a bit above them. "Nice to meet ya, Creepy Face."

"Ah, you must be also part of that group… I met your friends a while ago."

"December the eighteenth. That isn't a while, is it? Over three months." Axel corrected.

"For immortal it's only a short moment. They truly annoyed me but thanks to them I realized to make my fearlings more powerful. I thank you."

"The pleasure was ours." Laura took her necklace and as she turned it into the staff she had used earlier, she took a fighting pose. Behind her Axel also moved his feet a bit to get more stable place to stand since the whole floor was covered with those golden teeth containers.

"Going to fight me, are you? You must be confident then." Pitch moved his arm lazily and a couple of nightmare horses appeared from the shadows behind him. Those creatures charged towards the two teens who didn't move an inch at first. Laura only narrowed her eyes and when they were close enough she jumped. At least two meters, maybe three. Axel in the other hand ducked and created an ice slide to get to a higher landing. He scowled at the Boogeyman who calmly faced him on the platform opposite him. The boy shot icicles from his hand at the Nightmare King while Laura fought with the fearlings.

* * *

They were losing. Laura had known it ever since Creepy Face had arrived. How could they win if it was only two of them against the Boogeyman in his almost full power? She jumped backwards to stand next to Axel. There was some kind of exit behind them.

"Ax, when I say run, you'll run, okay? No matter what happens to me."

"Laura…"

"Okay? Then wait where-ever you'll end up." She asked in a low voice. The black sand horses where approaching them as well as Creepy Face.

"Okay."

"You two have quite interesting talents. Your two friends also have. You four could do greatly in my forces. What do you think?" Pitch talked them with a sweet voice which flattered and taunted at the same time if it was even possible.

"Maybe when someday but not before the hell freezes over." Laura replied.

"Was that a Harry Potter quote?" Axel asked.

"Yeah, damn well said in my opinion." The girl nodded. "Run!"

And Axel turned around to sprint away, to safety. The Nightmare King let out an angry cry. No way he'd let them escape! The fearlings galloped after Axel and blocked his path.

"Damn! Axel, catch!" To both Pitch and Axel's surprise, Laura threw her staff she had turned back into a Key while the Boogeyman's attention was on Axel. With a baseball player's reflexes the boy caught the silvery object and Laura shouted: "Snow Gate, open!"

And Axel was gone.

* * *

Pitch shrieked at the blond girl in fury but she stood on her ground. Axel was safe now. She had sent him to North Pole where the Guardians would most likely be at the moment. But the trick and cost her too much energy. It had been the first time she had moved anything with the Key without being herself with them. Her knees gave in and she could barely stop her face meeting up with the stone floor.

"Pathetic. Truly pathetic." She heard Pitch say above her.

"If I'm pathetic, what are you then? Pitiful? Weak? Or are you also… pathetic?" Laura knew she was pushing her luck and indeed… she got hit squarely on her face with nightmare sand. She flew several meters backwards but stopped finally with a slide. The iron-like taste of blood filled her mouth. "I warn you Creepy Face; never mess up with the Protectors…" Laura managed to say with barely audible voice before her mind drifted into blissful darkness.

* * *

"Whah!" Axel landed on his butt. This time it wasn't a stone floor but a wooden floor. He was in a large room and in the middle of it was a giant miniature of the Globe. From the windows he could see snow falling. _"Where am I?"_

"Hey, are you alright?" A female voice asked him. Axel found himself looking into a pair of amethyst eyes. Tooth Fairy.

"I guess so…" He answered with a nod and got on his feet. Then he noticed the Key on his hand. Laura… What had happened to her?

"Wait a min, Tooth, he can see you?" A voice with heavy Australian accent spoke up. Axel saw a little rabbit near a nonexistent doorway as the room wasn't really separated from a large hall filled with noises.

"You know I can hear you…" The boy murmured. The rabbit turned to look at him with a most incredulous look on his face.

"You can? And you can see me too?"

"Yes, I can see you, you fluffy little rabbit." Axel snapped. A worry about his sister was making its way to his behavior.

"Hey, I'm no' justa rabbit. I'm Easter Bunny. _The_ Easter Bunny." The… rabbit hopped forward and tried to kick the boy who just stepped aside. He didn't have time for this. Laura could be in a big trouble and he had no way to get back there as he could not use his sister's Key.

"Hey, are you sure you're alright?" Tooth Fairy touched Axel's shoulder gently and looked at him a concern in her eyes.

"I'm fine but Laura… She is still there…" The boy's voice was quivering slightly as he fought back the tears that threatened to come.

"Where is she?"

"At… at Creepy Face's HQ. We went to look around but he found out. Laura was left behind as she made me an escape."

"Who… exactly is this 'Creepy Face'?"

"Ah, that's a name Kia gave to the Boogeyman in December because it annoys him and none of us bothers to remember his actual name and…" Axel drew breath but before he could continue, the rabbit – sorry, the Easter Bunny – interrupted him.

"The Boogeyman? Wait a min, you found Pitch's lair? And what is this talk about December? Pitch talked about it, Frostbite mentioned it."

"Yeah, Laura and I found it last summer. And as for the December… Kia and Mari fought Creepy Face back then when he was testing his fearlings in Finland. My guess is that he planned attacking on Christmas but without a proper plan he lost to those two. I guess Laura mentioned that day to Jack at some point." The boy continued his monologue.

"What do you know about Jack?" Tooth asked.

"He's Laura's boyfriend. They confessed their feelings to each other on the last New Year but now we are getting beside the point. Laura. Is. In. Trouble. Can you help me in anyway?"

"We'd love to but in the state of ours… I doubt we can help much…" Tooth said quietly. Indeed, she was standing on the ground and her wings weren't constantly fluttering like they should've. Even her feathers looked like they'd lost some of their color or at least the spark they would've made them magnificent. Axel gave her a sympathetic look before sitting down on the floor and looked at the globe. Tooth Fairy sat next to him her legs folded under herself and placed her hand on his shoulder. Even Bunny hopped closer. None of them said anything. It was no use to argue anymore. At the moment all he could do was to wait.

* * *

_Drrriiing… Drrriiing…_

It took Axel a second to realize it was his cell phone making that noise. Slowly he took the vibrating piece of electronics from his pocket and answered, putting the phone on the speaker at the same time.

"Hello?"

"_Axel? Is that you? Your voice sounds awful."_ A girl's voice told him. Axel gasped and saw for the first time the caller's ID.

"La-Laura? Are you alright?" Tooth and Bunny looked at the boy curiously. Didn't he just say that his sister was in trouble?

"_I'm perfectly fine. I just woke up. Creepy Face made me take a nap and that wasn't very pleasant. Now he's gone though… Remind me to thank Mari for giving us so many Peace Dust boxes. The Dust woke me up and is now keeping the nightmares away from me."_

"I see. Good to hear your voice. But how-?"

"_It seems that Creepy Face hasn't heard a thing like pockets. I still have my cell, a box of Peace Dust and a packet of napkins. And my wrist watch… But enough about me now. Do you have any Peace Dust in your backpack?"_

"There should be… Why?"

"_Take it and pour it over the Globe. I bet Creepy Face is coming to gloat and he must not see that Helsinki is doing fine. Understand? And after doing that, contact Kia and Mari and tell them to come Burgess."_

"Why me?"

"_The battery is almost dead, I gotta go now. By the way… would you punch Easter Bunny on the face for me please? He said very badly to Jack. Bye! Stay safe."_ Laura hung up and left Axel to stare the screen of his cell phone. After a moment of silence he finally pocketed the cell and took his backpack.

"…Right. I guess I'll leave the punching part away because of the state of yours." He opened the zipper and turned the backpack upside down. Several things fell on the floor in front of the three but only one of them caught their attention. And it wasn't the transparent box of Peace Dust.

"What is that doing here?" Bunny asked as Tooth picked a golden teeth container up. The comment Laura had made at the end of the phone call was totally forgotten now. Axel stared at the box in shock but managed to say 'I don't know.' to the Pooka. Tooth took a good look at the container and smiled sadly. That one mistake she had made years ago… There was a smiley face of a little blond-haired girl with blue eyes painted on the container. A girl full of belief and joy. Without any doubt it was Laura Sommers's teeth in that container.

"Tooth?" Bunny looked at his colleague's pensive face. He hadn't seen her look like that even when children had started to stop believing in her. Axel frowned. Why Laura hadn't told him that she had found her teeth? What was she hiding?

"Hei, höyhenaivo! Herätys! (Hey, featherbrain! Wake up!)" The boy huffed and waved his hand in front of the Guardian of Memories's face. She snapped out of her thoughts and dropped the container on the floor by accident. Axel took it to his hand. As his fingers brushed the cool and smooth checkered surface, the container opened. Memories started to flow out from it and filled their heads with images none of them had never seen before or didn't remember seeing.

* * *

Laura rubbed her hurt shoulder and glared the bars around her. She had tried to get out of her cage without any success for a while already.

"Just… give in a bit… so I can… squeeze through…" She tried to bend one of the bars. The mini fairies in cages next to hers were quiet but watched her every move and unsuccessful attempt to get free. At least she was now left alone by the black sand thanks to Peace Dust. "Please… Only five centimeters… I'm not even fat... Only five cents and I'll fit…"

After ten more minutes of fruitless trying and failing, she finally sat on the bottom of her cage. The light blue Dust butterflies gathered closer to her head to comfort her. "I'm fine… I just need to get out…" A cold breeze blew in and made the girl shiver. She was used to cold but only when it came from Jack. And now he was nowhere near. Not at all close to…

"Laura? What are you doing here?" Her head perked up and she found herself staring straight into the bright blue eyes of her boyfriend.

"Jack!" She squealed happily and dashed to hug him through the bars. The snow spirit returned the hug and held her as close as he could.

"I missed you…" Jack murmured to her hair and tightened the hug as if he'd been afraid to lose her somehow.

"I missed you too… And I'm so sorry… I should've been there for your support. I mean I saw when the Guardians accused you of destroying Easter but I didn't do anything even though I should've and-." But before Laura could continue her rambling, Jack cut her off by kissing her. It was nothing like their previous kisses, those small pecks that could've been labeled as 'cute' or 'sweet' or 'gentle'. This one was desperate, full of longing and anxiousness. It was also forgiving and… something one couldn't even name. Everything that Laura wanted to say to Jack was now forgotten by that one kiss. It didn't matter to Jack though. He knew Laura had seen everything. In the same way than the girl had been able to sense his presence, he could do the same with her. And he wasn't mad at all to the girl. He understood she was more afraid of getting noticed and probably had been down that her Easter Project had failed.

They pulled apart slowly, Laura in a small daze.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked quietly. The girl nodded.

"Yeah…"

"Good, let me help you out of here." Reluctantly they unwrapped their arms around each other and Laura took a step back. Jack twirled his staff in his hand and froze then the lock of the door of the cage. With a strong hit on the ice cube, the lock broke into pieces and the door opened. Jack gave his hand to Laura. "Come."

"You don't need to ask twice." She chuckled and wrapped her arms around the spirit's neck so he could help her down. When their feet touched the ground Laura didn't make a move to get apart from her boyfriend. The butterflies had followed the girl and were now twirling around them.

"Hey… what's up?"

"I… I was so scared I wouldn't see you again… I barely could save Axel and then the nightmares came." She sobbed on Jack's shoulder.

"But now I'm here. And Axel is safe, right? There is nothing for you to be afraid about."

"I saw you turning dark and joining Creepy Face… You hurt me… and laughed… I… You… You weren't you anymore!"

"Why would I have joined in Pitch's forces?"

"He had your memories. He had modified them and made you believe it was your purpose… The Man in the Moon had brought you here so you wouldn't do the same mistakes you did in your previous life." Laura sobbing and stopped but she still didn't raise her face to look Jack in the eye. When she had woken up she had managed to push everything back and try to escape. Maybe it was thanks to adrenaline or then it was the Peace Dust, she didn't know, but now when she was out of the cage and with the subject of her nightmare was with her, everything came back to her like a tidal wave.

"Well, I can say that none of those are true. I did have a previous life but I died to save my sister's life and that's the reason why Moon brought me back. To protect other kids and bring joy to them. I found my center."

"Your…?" Laura looked at him quizzically. "How did you found out?"

"Baby Tooth here encouraged me to check the memories my teeth had." Laura noticed the mini fairy, who was flying above Jack's head, for the first time now. She froze as her brains started to race hundred kilometers per hour. Her own teeth were in Axel's back pack and Axel was at North Pole. The chances that the Guardians were there too were quite big. And she had told Axel to use Peace Dust he most likely had in his backpack. So he most likely would find the golden box quite soon and knowing him, he would want to know why she hadn't told him she had found it.

"Oh no…"

* * *

**A/N: Hi, here is the 8th chapter. I'm sorry I haven't been able to post this earlier. School work caught me again... This time I won't put any explanations but if you have something to ask, do it. I'll answer.**


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